A Whole New World
by TitansRule
Summary: Sequel to The Ones Left Behind. Peggy Carter is undercover in Tibet. Steve Rogers is waking up in the 21st century in New York. At some point, they will get their reunion. That is, if they can navigate exploding bases, aliens invasions and Tony Stark. Peggy/Steve; Tony/Pepper
1. Chapter 1

**This is the sequel to The Ones Left Behind. I suggest you read that first.**

* * *

><p>Sometimes, undercover work could be spectacularly boring, especially when the majority of it comprised of stake-outs and especially when you were alone.<p>

Peggy Carter yawned and took a sip of her coffee, one hand propping her head up as she gazed out of the tiny motel room window.

Her gaze was fixed on the shipping yard opposite, her other hand drumming a pen against the chipped wood of the window sill.

An eighteen wheeler slowed down to drive through the yard's entrance gates and Peggy straightened, abandoning her coffee in favour of the binoculars that sat on the notepad beside her.

Without looking down, she jotted down the time and description of the vehicle, focussing on the men that climbed out of the cab.

As they began unloading crates, Peggy waited, ignoring the soft, tinny noise of her cell phone in favour of examining the cargo, estimating the size of the crates and calculating how many the truck could hold.

Finally, she sighed, setting the binoculars aside and noting her observations down on the notepad. She knew that a child trafficking ring was using the ship yard to move their 'produce', but this particular load was not involved.

Her phone had stopped ringing, but she picked it up anyway, flicking to the message that had been left.

_VCASAPSLNF_

Peggy frowned.

A video conference on a secure line as soon as possible?

Director Fury rarely interrupted agents on undercover operations, and he wouldn't be doing it unless there was a very good reason.

She opened her laptop, double checking the security firewall before making the call, turning on the radio in the corner so the classical music prevented anyone in the surrounding rooms from eavesdropping.

Nick Fury appeared on the screen and he gave her a respectful nod. _"Agent Carter."_

"Director." Peggy greeted. "What's happened? Is it P.E.G.A.S.U.S?"

There was only one reason that she could think of that would warrant an emergency call and that was a development with the research into the Tesseract over in New Mexico.

_"No." _Fury admitted. _"So far, there's been nothing on that end."_

"Then what?" Peggy asked. "What is it?"

_"It's Operation: Valkyrie." _Fury answered. _"We've found him."_

The breath seemed to vanish from Peggy's lungs and she looked away, hot tears burning behind her eyes. She fought them back furiously, taking a deep breath before turning back to Nick, her face and voice expressionless. "Where is he?"

_"They're … thawing him out." _Fury answered. _"Dr Stiller is on standby; I'll transfer you now."_

Peggy nodded jerkily, and the image onscreen switched to a blonde woman in a white coat, who was standing in front of a great deal of activity. "Doctor."

_"Good morning, Agent Carter." _Stiller greeted. _"Or evening, I suppose it is there. I assume Director Fury's filled you in."_

"Yes." Peggy said, her throat closing up. "Can I see him?"

_"Just a second." _Stiller disappeared from view and the image onscreen moved as she picked the camera up and carried it over to the table behind her.

The various doctors and scientists scattered at her approach, and Peggy's breath caught a second time at the sight of Steve, still half encased in ice.

The top half of his body had been freed, his face no longer covered in a mask, his eyes closed as though he were asleep, his lips still blue with cold, and she cleared her throat. "Thank you."

Dr Stiller reappeared on the screen. _"We should have him all thawed out in a few hours."_

"What can you tell me?" Peggy asked automatically.

_"Well …" _Dr Stiller seemed to hesitate, but pressed on regardless. _"Cause of death was blunt force trauma to the back of the head, I believe. The wound never healed, which …"_

"Which it would have done if he'd still been alive." Peggy finished, her voice sounding strange to her. "Was it quick?"

_"Oh yes." _Dr Stiller assured her. _"I doubt he even knew what hit him."_

"Good." Peggy said. She could feel herself losing control, and cleared her throat. "Thank you very much, Dr Stiller. Please keep me informed."

Dr Stiller nodded, soft sympathy in her eyes. She was one of the people who knew that Peggy wasn't really her own great-niece Sharon, so knew full well what this news meant. _"I will. For what it's worth, Agent Carter, you have my condolences."_

"Thank you." Peggy said shortly, ending the call before she could break down completely.

The music floating out of the radio rose to a crescendo and she drew in a shaky breath, curling herself into a ball as the tears began to slip down her cheeks.

For over sixty five years, Peggy had insisted that she had accepted that Steve was dead, worried about Howard's constant claims that he wasn't, assured people that it was a recovery – not a rescue – mission and she knew it.

But now he was home, and she realised that for all her protests to the contrary, at least a small part of her had been hoping and praying that they would find him alive.

Now she could no longer deny it.

"That's it then." She said quietly, her voice fading into the music that filled the room. "It's official."

At some point, she would have to call the families of the other Commandoes and tell them. She was the last, and the families all thought she was Sharon, but they deserved to know.

"Steve …" She began, her voice breaking. If she couldn't say it aloud to herself, she would never manage it to anyone else. "Captain Rogers is …"

Her phone lit up with an incoming call, and Peggy wiped her eyes, answering it once she knew that she had composed herself. "Carter."

_"Agent Carter, it's Dr Stiller. You asked me to keep you informed."_

"I did." Peggy said, glancing at the clock. "That was quick."

_"Well, we haven't finished thawing him out yet." _Dr Stiller admitted. _"But I had to call you. I was a little hasty in declaring cause of death."_

"Oh God …" Peggy whispered, closing her eyes. "Did he drown? Tell me he drowned. That has to be better than freezing to death."

_"It would be." _Dr Stiller agreed. _"But that's not what I meant. I assumed that the wound on his head didn't heal because he was dead, but I believe it may have occurred just before his body temperature dropped to a point of …"_

"Doctor." Peggy interrupted. "Did he suffer?"

_"Unfortunately, yes." _Dr Stiller said, causing Peggy's heart to sink. _"But the serum kept him alive."_

The last word seemed to echo across the phone line and Peggy reached out to grip the bedpost, feeling the wood splinter under her hands. "Pardon?"

_"Captain Rogers is still alive." _Dr Stiller repeated. _"He's in a deep coma, but all signs of brain activity seem good and his heart rate is slow, but steady. I'm confident of a full recovery."_

* * *

><p>Peggy's initial reaction to Dr Stiller's announcement was to return to the States, but she forced herself to stay put before she could even put the suggestion across to Fury.<p>

Undercover operations were notoriously difficult to put in place, especially in this part of the world. If she had been dealing with arms dealers or something similar, she would have blown the op and returned home, but the innocent children involved gave her cause to stay.

Steve would understand, when he eventually woke up.

And it was eventual.

Months passed, with no word except a weekly text from Fury reading _no change_.

Then, one cold night in April, the phone call came.

As timing went, it wasn't ideal. After months of observation, she was ready to take down the leaders of the ring, but to do so she would need better intel, so she was waiting in the darkness of the shipping yard for one of their runners to arrive.

It was a solo operation, with no handler except for the long-range surveillance carried out by the local SHIELD base, but she still had a comm unit in her ear, in case the agents on the ground needed to pass her information.

_"Agent Carter."_

Peggy hummed quietly to let them know she was listening, her body poised to strike.

_"I have Director Fury on the line. He says it's urgent."_

"This is urgent." Peggy murmured, before sighing. "Patch him through."

_"Agent Carter, are you free to talk?"_

"Not really." Peggy answered, as her mark appeared in her line of sight. "Is this going to be quick?"

_"Unlikely." _Fury said.

Her mark had spotted her and was pulling a gun.

Peggy rolled her eyes, drawing her own weapon. "Then hang on." She ducked, allowing his bullet to pass harmlessly overhead.

Her bullet hit its mark, knocking the gun from his hand, and she holstered her weapon. People would mishear one or two gunshots as cars backfiring, or shipping crates landing heavily, but more than that would attract more attention than she wanted.

Instead, she leapt at him, her thighs wrapping around his neck and flipping him in one smooth motion, a move she had learned from Natasha and worked like a dream every time.

The pressure cut off just enough oxygen to knock her mark out, and she straightened up, hoisting him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Okay, now I can talk."

_"Video conference would be best." _Fury said, sounding amused. _"This is going to be easier to believe if he can see your face."_

"If who can see my face?" Peggy asked, crossing the road to the motel, keeping to the shadows. "Wait – Steve? Is he awake?"

_"Find a secure line, Agent Carter."_

"I am." Peggy let herself into her motel room and unceremoniously dropped her captive, her heart racing. The rooms around her were empty as far as she knew, but she was taking no chances. Turning the radio's volume up and opening her laptop to call Nick, she set about gagging the unconscious man and cuffing him to the radiator.

_"Agent Carter." _Fury's voice sounded stereo in the room and she grimaced, removing the ear piece and glancing back at his face on the screen. _"What are you doing?"_

"Gathering intel, Director." Peggy answered cheerfully, 'accidentally' kicking the man in the stomach as she stepped over him. "I want to know who's running the show."

_"Well, that's one way of doing things." _Fury muttered. _"Agent Carter, I assume you remember Captain Rogers."_

The picture onscreen swung around so she could see Steve, who seemed to be rooted to his seat, his eyes glued to her face as though it held the secrets of the universe.

Fury's words were for his sake, not hers, and her face lit up in a smile she didn't even try to temper. "As if I could forget."

_"Captain Rogers is a little distrustful of us, Agent Carter, so if you wouldn't mind …"_

Peggy nodded. "Say no more, Director. If _you_ wouldn't mind giving us some privacy?"

She heard rather than saw Fury leave, but when the door shut, Steve let out a shaky breath. _"Peggy?"_

His voice trembled on her name and for a second, she was back in that control room, listening to him say goodbye.

"You have no idea," she said softly, "how good it is to see you, Steve."

Steve ducked his head with the shy smile she remembered, and her own smile grew, turning into a frown when she heard a groan behind her.

"Excuse me for one second."

Leaning over to the man cuffed to the radiator, Peggy dug her finger and thumb into the nape of his neck, pressing down on the nerves that made him slump unconscious again.

_"Do you need to deal with him?" _Steve asked.

Peggy shrugged. "Eventually. He can wait. Not buying the whole SHIELD thing, huh?"

_"I started believing it when I heard your voice." _Steve admitted. _"It just threw me when I woke up – the room looked right, but there was a baseball game on the wireless and I went to it in '41."_

Peggy let out a groan, shaking her head. "And these people set up our undercover identities. That's more than a little concerning. Do you have any questions?"

_"Just one." _Steve said. _"Director Fury said it was 2012 and Time Square definitely looked like it was …"_

Peggy grimaced in sympathy. Letting Steve directly out into Time Square (although she doubted that anyone 'let' him out) was akin to throwing him into the deep end of a swimming pool when he couldn't swim.

_"… but you … I mean …"_

"I got a dose of the serum in 1947." Peggy said, taking pity on him. "It stops the aging process. That's why I don't look any older." She sighed. "Listen, I'd love to catch the next flight out of here, but I can't. I have to wrap this up first."

_"I understand_." Steve said, and her heart swelled with affection, because he _did _understand. _"What did that guy do anyway?"_

Peggy cast a dirty look at the man behind her. "He's been trafficking children for the sex industry."

_"He's been … What?" _Steve looked bewildered and horrified, and she smiled gently at him.

"There are some crappy people in the world, Steve. He'll get his, don't worry."

_"Good." _Steve mumbled.

Peggy heard the office door open behind him and smiled. "Well, I guess that's my cue. Just fair warning, official story is that I'm dead, so if you hear that, don't worry about it, it's a cover. Okay?"

_"Okay. Stay safe."_

"You too." Peggy said, the lump returning to her throat. She ended the call before she could talk herself out of it, taking several calming breaths.

Steve was alive. He was awake. He was safe in New York.

And she could see him once she had ensured the safety of thousands of suffering children.

Movement behind her broke through her thoughts, and she turned to face her guest, who had woken up and was tugging at his cuffs with a look of bewilderment. As his gaze landed on her, she smirked viciously. "Nice of you to join me." She said sweetly. "You and I are going to have a little chat …"


	2. Chapter 2

Just over a month later, while Peggy slipped false information into the mechanisms of the trafficking ring, preparing for her final attack to destroy the root of the problem, the SHIELD base in New Mexico finally encountered the hiccup that everyone against Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S had expecting.

However, even its loudest critics could not have predicted the reason behind the loud blaring alarm that echoed through the base in the middle of the night.

Every agency worth its salt ran evacuation drills at least every six months, and SHIELD ran theirs every two, but no amount of preparation lessened the frantic confusion, agents and families dragged out of bed from the onsite residences, many of them still dressed in their nightclothes, children clutching teddy bears and blankets even as they were unceremoniously loaded into vehicles that would take them to safety.

In the midst of the chaos, Phil Coulson stood motionless on the helipad, the fear and trepidation in his eyes masked by dark glasses, even at this late hour.

It wasn't long before the reason for his vigil became clear, a chopper swooping in to land before him, the door sliding open before it had even touched down.

Agent Maria Hill exited first, taking the opportunity to survey the evacuation process while she waited for Director Fury to follow her.

Hill was about ten years younger than Coulson, but she had risen through the ranks of SHIELD quickly and had proved her worth time and time again, so it was no surprise that Fury had chosen to bring her along to the evacuation.

The real surprise was that she was not yet Deputy Director, but that could well change over the next few days, depending on how well she handled the current crisis.

"How bad is it?" Fury asked as they approached, having to raise his voice to be heard above the chopper's blades.

Coulson removed his shades, tucking them inside his jacket. "That's the problem, sir. We don't know." He led them inside and down towards the laboratories, but didn't elaborate until they had reached a level where the noise outside had dimmed to a point that they could speak easily. "Dr Selvig read an energy source from the Tesseract four hours ago."

Behind them, Hill sucked in an involuntary breath and Coulson spared her a glance over his shoulder. From private conversations, he knew that Maria was as unsure about the whole thing as he was, although they would never say as much – their job was to follow orders, not question them.

Besides, Peggy was doing enough questioning for all three of them.

But Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S was still in the early stages, and there should not be any energy sources being read.

"NASA didn't authorise Selvig to go to test phrase." Fury said disapprovingly.

"He wasn't testing it." Coulson said. "He wasn't even in the room. Spontaneous event."

"It just turned itself on?" Hill asked in surprise.

"Yeah."

"Where are the energy levels now?" Fury prompted.

"Climbing." Coulson said grimly. "When Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered evac."

"How long to get everyone out?"

"Campus should be clear in the next half hour."

"Do better." Fury ordered.

Coulson nodded sharply, falling out of pace with them and retracing their steps. He squeezed Hill's arm as he passed and she managed a weak smile as she hurried after their boss.

"Sir, evacuation may be futile."

"We should tell them to go back to sleep?" Fury asked sardonically, not slowing down.

Hill sighed, her stomach clenching unpleasantly. "If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there might not be a minimum safe distance."

"I need you to make sure the Phase Two prototypes are shipped out." Fury told her, as though she hadn't spoken.

"Sir, is that really a priority right now?"

Now Fury stopped, outside the laboratory where the Tesseract was being kept, turning to face her. "Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on. Clear out the tech below. Every piece of Phase Two on a truck and gone."

"Yes sir." Hill said, motioning to the two armed guards outside the lab. "With me."

Fury watched them leave, then entered the lab. Selvig's colleagues and assistants were running around like headless chickens, running tests and checking readings, but the man himself was examining the Tesseract, which was sitting in the ray they had been planning on using to channel energy from space. "Talk to me, doctor."

"Director." Selvig greeted.

"Is there anything we know for certain?"

Selvig grimaced. "The Tesseract is misbehaving."

"Is that supposed to be funny?" Fury asked with a frown.

"It's not funny at all." Selvig agreed. "The Tesseract is not only active, she's … behaving."

No one was quite certain why Selvig had decided the Tesseract was female, but the man was a genius so no one was going to argue about it.

"I assume you pulled the plug." Fury said.

"She's an energy source." Selvig pointed out. "We turn off the power; she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level …" He trailed off hopelessly.

"You prepared for this, doctor." Fury pointed out. "Harnessing energy from space."

"We don't have the harness." Selvig explained, returning to his examinations. "My calculations are far from complete. And she's throwing off interference – radiation. Nothing harmful; low levels of gamma radiation."

"That can be harmful." Fury muttered, the destruction in Harlem flashing across his mind. "Where's Agent Barton?"

Selvig snorted. "The Hawk? Up in his nest, as usual."

In the rafters, Clint Barton was perched on a perilous ledge, his eyes sweeping the room almost lazily, taking in every tiny detail. He hadn't so much as twitched in hours, not when the Tesseract turned itself on, not when the alarm started blaring, not even when his boss had entered the room.

He only moved when Fury's voice came over his comm.

_"Barton, report."_

Grabbing a nearby cable, Clint slid down to ground level, landing almost silently beside the Director. "Sir."

"I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things." Fury said sternly.

"I see better from a distance." Clint said, no trace of apology in his voice.

"Have you seen anything that might set this thing off?" Fury asked, not bothering to press the issue any further. Barton was good at his job, good enough for his somewhat odd habits (like preferring high places, memorising the ventilation systems and hiding in them for days, and choosing a bow and arrow over a gun) to be brushed aside.

One of the other scientists - a blonde woman Fury couldn't remember the name of (but he was willing to bet Clint could list everything down to her bank account and great-grandmother's maiden name) – called the doctors over as the energy levels spiked again.

"No one's come or gone." Clint reported. "And Selvig's clean. No contacts, no IMs. If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end."

He said it so casually that it took a few seconds for Fury to realise what he'd said. "At this end?"

Clint Barton was the best sniper SHIELD had, and one of the best assassins. As such, people tended to think – the man himself included – that he wasn't intelligent.

Unlike others, his intelligence was never shown with complicated explanations or arrogance. Admittedly, the man could get a little cocky with a bow in his hand, but a man of his talent had every right to, and even then it was in such a way that no one considered the complicated equations that must have been running through his head constantly at top speed in order for him to make half the shots he did.

No, his intelligence shone through in casual actions and throwaway statements.

Just like that.

Even as Fury questioned him, it was clear that Clint had no inclination that what he'd said was in any way intelligent. As far as he was concerned, he'd stated the obvious, and it showed in his next words.

"Yeah, the Cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right?" He raised an eyebrow. "Doors open from both sides."

His tone was so matter-of-fact that Fury felt momentarily stupid for not thinking of it earlier, but before he could respond, the Cube's energy spiked even higher, causing the ground to shake beneath them. A ball of light formed in the middle of the Cube and shot a beam across the lab, forming a rift through which they could see the inky black of space.

The portal let out another blinding pulse of light, before closing, the remnants of the electric blue forming a kind of cloud up near the ceiling.

The vanishing portal was replaced by a dark shape that straightened into a man, a man with dark hair and a handsome, pointed face. He was gripping a strange glowing stick, which had everyone on edge, and the scientists backed off as the armed guards edged forwards, weapons at the ready.

"Sir!" Fury called. "Please put down the spear!"

The man seemed to hesitate, but made a sudden motion with the spear, sending a jolt of blue light in their direction.

Clint dived at Fury, knocking him behind the Tesseract's pedestal, leaving the offensive actions to his colleagues, who opened fire at the interloper. The man leapt at them, killing them both with the spear. Two more agents began shooting, but two small knives shot out of nowhere, catching them in the throat, killing them as well.

Clint drew his weapon, gesturing to two other agents. As the blonde lab assistant and one of the security personnel dropped unconscious, the three men opened fire, having hardly any impact before they had to avoid another pulse of apparently lethal light.

For a few minutes, silence fell. Steam was billowing from the water pipes, several pieces of equipment were aflame, and everyone had taken cover. Only Clint was stirring and he struggled to his feet, but the man grabbed his weapon arm before he could take aim.

His grip was stronger than that of a normal man, and it started Clint enough to almost miss what happened next.

"You have heart." The man said softly, a crisp English accent marking his words. He touched the tip of the spear – which up close was more of a sceptre – to Clint's chest, and it glowed once more. This time, however, the glow was gently, a warm feeling that spread through Clint's body and into his mind, calming him.

This man's intentions were good, he realised – he was here for the good of mankind, unlike SHIELD. He slipped his gun back into its holster, and returned to parade rest, waiting for instructions.

Fury had no idea what this strange man had just done to one of his best men, but he didn't have the luxury of worrying. As he repeated the actions with one of the security agents who had been rendered unconscious rather than dead, the director removed the Tesseract from its base and placed it inside a metal briefcase, intending to sneak it out of the laboratory before he could be noticed.

"Please don't." The man said quietly. "I still need that."

Fury froze, turning to face him. "This doesn't have to get any messier."

"Of course it does." The man disagreed. "I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki, of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

Selvig had been checking on the lab assistant, but this caught his attention. "Loki? Brother of Thor?"

Judging by the irritation that passed across Loki's face, this was the wrong thing to say, and Fury held up a calming hand. "We have no quarrel with your people."

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot." Loki said coolly.

The remnants of the portal were unstable and if burying himself along with Loki saved the world, Fury was willing to do it. If he could just keep Loki talking. "You planning to step on us?"

"I come with glad tidings." Loki insisted. "Of a world made free."

"Free from what?" Fury asked sceptically.

"Freedom." Loki answered, a kind of manic gleam in his eye. "Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart …" he spun around to touch the sceptre to Selvig's chest, and Fury watched in horror as the same blue light crept into the doctor's eyes. "… you will know peace."

"Here you say peace." Fury said darkly. "I kind of think you mean the other thing."

"Sir, Director Fury is stalling." Clint said suddenly. "This place is about to blow, drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us."

Fury met his artificially blue gaze with a hint of sadness. "Like the pharaohs of old."

"He's right." Selvig agreed, checking the computer. "We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."

Loki smiled slightly. "Well then …" He glanced at Clint, who drew his weapon and fired at Fury, hitting him in the heart.

Down in the garage, Hill had just finished sending out the last of the Phase Two prototypes when the elevator doors opened, and Clint emerged. "Need these vehicles." He said bluntly.

Hill stepped aside to let him past, frowning slightly as Loki climbed into the bed of one of the trucks. "Who's that?"

"He didn't tell me." Clint muttered.

Hill shook her head slightly. Clint Barton had some strange habits, and she'd long since learned not to question them. As she made her way back to the elevator, however, her radio crackled on her belt.

_"Hill! Do you copy? Barton has turned!"_

Hill's eyes widened and she spun around just in time to see Barton draw his weapon. She dived round the corner just in time, drawing her own gun. He took the opportunity to jump into the driver's seat, and speed towards the exit.

The portal was growing steadily more unstable, the ground beginning to shake almost continually. Fury ripped Clint's bullet from his vest, sprinting for the helipad.

_"We're clear upstairs, sir." _Coulson told him over the radio. _"You need to go!"_

He emerged on to the roof and jumped into the helicopter, which rose into the air, just as the roof began to cave in. Seconds later, there was a muffled explosion beneath them, and a shock wave rippled out across the base, causing the whole thing to collapse in on itself.

At Fury's instruction, the helicopter swung round to the exit of the garage, and he saw exactly what he'd hoped he wouldn't – a lone truck with Loki in the back driving away from the rubble. He fired out of the open door, the bullets shattering the truck's windscreen, but another jolt of light from the sceptre hit the helicopter's tail and it began careening towards the ground. Fury jumped clear, rolling to absorb some of the impact, before continuing to shoot, but the truck was now too far away, and he could only watch helplessly as it –and the Tesseract – disappeared over the hill.

He now had to count Barton as compromised, which would be easier if the impact of the earlier bullet didn't still ache.

Barton knew that it was Fury's policy to always wear bullet-proof armour, and yet he hadn't taken the headshot.

Admittedly, his weapon of choice was a bow, not a gun, but Clint was an assassin – he could manage just as well with both.

So why was Fury still alive?

Did Loki want him for some reason?

Or was some part of Clint fighting for control?

_"Director? Director Fury, do you copy?"_

Coulson's voice over the radio broke him free of his thoughts. "The Tesseract is with a hostile force. I have men down." His eyes travelled to the downed chopper, where the pilots were struggling free of the wreckage. "Hill?"

There was no response for a split second, then her voice responded, sending a wave of relief through both men. _"A lot of men still under. Don't know how many survivors."_

"Sound the general call." Fury ordered. "I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase."

_"Roger that." _Hill confirmed weakly.

"Coulson, get back to base." Fury continued. "This is a level seven. As of right now, we are at war."

_"What do we do?" _Coulson asked.

Fury didn't answer for a few seconds. In theory, Phase Two should be activated, but Phase Two wasn't ready, and would never be in time to stop whatever Loki was planning. He had to make a call. "Bring in the Widow. It's time to assemble."

Despite the grim circumstances, Coulson sounded almost gleeful. _"Roger that."_

* * *

><p><strong>The next chapter will be up as soon as I get back from running an errand.<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: I advise you don't think too hard about flight times and timezones, because I did and it gave me a headache. Just assume that a) SHIELD uses the quickest, most direct route, even if it crosses the IDL, and b) SHIELD quinjets are a LOT faster than commercial flights. Also, I uploaded chapters 2 and 3 very close together, so if you clicked on 'last chapter' you might want to go back one.**

* * *

><p><strong>Russia<strong>

George Luchkov was feeling rather pleased with himself. Not only had he managed to reveal his date for the evening as a spy, he had managed to capture the Black Widow.

No one knew who the Black Widow was, just her reputation for being the deadliest assassin in the world. That she was female was reason for dismissal (if you were stupid) or to fear her even more (if you weren't).

However, the beautiful redhead currently tied to a chair in the dilapidated factory was something of a disappointment. Unless, of course, she had managed to fool whoever had hired her into _thinking_ she was the Black Widow.

"This is not how I wanted the evening to go." He told her in Russian.

"I know how you wanted the evening to go." She replied in kind. "Trust me, this is better."

"Who are you working for?" He demanded. "Lermetov, yes? Does he think we have to go through him to move our cargo?"

Her eyes travelled to the cache of weapons peeking out from dustsheets, and she didn't respond. One of his men grasped the chair and tipped it backwards, towards the gaping hole in the floor behind her. She struggled to keep her feet on the ground. "I thought General Solohob was in charge of the export business."

Ah. She had come to him to get information on Solohob, not realising she had walked right into lion's den. "Solohob." He exchanged a smile with his lackeys, who seemed just as amused. "A bagman, a front. Your outdated information betrays you. The famous Black Widow … and she turns out to be simply another pretty face."

"You think I'm pretty?" She asked in a small voice.

She was, and apparently very attached to her looks. That was an easy way to send a message. With a nod, one of his men grabbed her face, holding her mouth open.

"Tell Lermetov we don't need him to move the tanks. Tell him he is out. Well …" He perused the selection of tools he had ready and chose a pair of pliers, switching to English. "You may have to write it down."

Her eyes widened with fear and he stepped towards her, but they were interrupted by his second flunky's phone ringing.

He answered it curtly, but immediately held it out to Luchkov with a confused expression. "It's for her."

Luchkov took the phone, expecting Lermetov to be on the other end. "You listen carefully …"

_"You are at 114 Silensky Plaza, third floor." _A cool American voice said. _"We have an F-22 exactly eight miles out. Put the woman on the phone, or I will blow up the block before you make the lobby."_

Suddenly not so confident about her origins, he held out the phone and she tucked it between her ear and her shoulder.

Natasha Romanoff disliked unexpected interruptions, and she knew that Coulson knew that. She also knew he was the only person who would interrupt, so she wasn't surprised to hear his voice.

_"We need you to come in."_

"Are you kidding?" Natasha asked. "I'm working."

_"This takes precedence."_ Coulson told her.

"I'm in the middle of an interrogation." Natasha argued. "This moron is giving me everything."

"I don't … give everything." He muttered in English.

Natasha gave him a sceptical look, but turned her attention back to the phone. "Look, you can't pull me out of this right now."

_"Natasha." _Coulson said, and didn't _that_ catch her attention. Coulson never used her first name on the job.

Ever.

_"Barton's been compromised."_

Only years of experience kept Natasha from completely losing her cool, but it didn't stop her heart stopping momentarily. Clint was the only person – man or woman – she had ever completely trusted to watch her back, and the first person she had trusted at all.

He was her partner, her best friend, the most loyal, dedicated person she knew … and he'd been compromised?

"Let me put you on hold." She said coolly, glancing at Luchkov. He stepped forwards to take the phone from her, and she took the opportunity to slam her foot into his knee and her head into his chest, knocking him to the floor.

Back at SHIELD, Coulson listened to the fight with little interest. He didn't feel too concerned about pulling Natasha back – even less than he had when he picked up the phone. If Natasha was in 'interrogation', then she probably had the information she wanted and was just playing with her targets, which everyone who knew her knew was her favourite part of the mission.

Quite aside from being a viable candidate for the Avengers Initiative (and the Council were not going to be happy about that), Natasha knew Clint better than anyone, even Phil, who had been the man's handler for years, and Peggy, who had known him for just as long, and he was hoping that she could break through whatever mind control Loki had invoked.

Strike Team Delta – as Clint and Natasha were known – had always been the basis of the Avengers Initiative, along with Lady Liberty. Natasha's conditioning in the Red Room may have created a perfect assassin, but she was almost wasted in the field, even as a special operative, and Clint – although he had undergone no conditioning as his partner had – had just as much potential.

Natasha got to her feet, leaving both lackeys unconscious on the ground. As Luchkov began to struggle to his feet, she knocked him off balance, wrapped a loose chain around his ankle, and pushed him through the hole in the floor, leaving him hanging there for her clean-up team to find. Scooping up her heels on the way out of the warehouse, she returned to Coulson. "Where is Barton now?"

_"We don't know." _Coulson admitted.

"But he's alive?" Natasha asked, a sense of relief filling her.

_"We think so." _Coulson said tentatively. _"I'll brief you on everything when you get back. But first, we need you to pull Carter out, then talk to the big guy."_

A smile crossed Natasha's face. "Coulson, you know Stark trusts me about as far as he can throw me."

_"Oh, I've got Stark." _Coulson told her. _"You get the big guy."_

Natasha paused, realising who he meant, and muttered a Russian curse under her breath. "Phil, is that necessary?"

_"Yes. The F-22 will fly you to Tibet, then Calcutta and there'll be a briefing packet waiting for you so you can fill them in."_

Natasha sighed. "Great."

* * *

><p><strong>Tibet<strong>

In a few minutes, the monsters running the trafficking would realise that something was wrong, that they should not all be at the shipping yard at the same time.

By that point it would be too late.

At times like this, Peggy's awareness was sky high, but even she flinched slightly, when Natasha appeared silently beside her.

The two women didn't speak, despite Peggy's burning curiosity, but then they didn't exactly have time to.

With timing so perfect that she would have thought Natasha planned it (and maybe she had, you could never be sure), the eight men caught sight of each other and began to panic.

They didn't so much as glance at each other before springing into action, and in a matter of minutes, their targets were lying motionless on the ground.

"Thank you for the help." Peggy said casually, delivering one last blow to the last man standing.

"You didn't need it." Natasha said with a shrug. "But I was in the neighbourhood, so I thought I'd drop in."

"Yeah, why are you in the neighbourhood?" Peggy asked, frowning. "You're supposed to be in Russia."

Natasha sighed. "There's been a … snag with P.E.G.A.S.U.S."

Peggy's heart sank into her stomach and she gestured for Natasha to follow her away from the unconscious traffickers, to a place they could talk privately but still keep an eye on them. The SHIELD ground team would be by soon to clean up after them, but she wasn't taking any chances. "What kind of snag?"

"The kind that leaves the base in a crater, kills forty eight agents, compromises Barton and leaves the Tesseract in Loki's hands." Natasha answered flatly.

Peggy cursed loudly, and Natasha waited patiently while she told her exactly what they should have told the Council when the idea was first suggested, made several speculations about Loki's background and parentage, and described in great detail what she'd like to do to him.

By the time she'd finished, Natasha was looking mildly impressed. "Was that last part anatomically possible?"

Peggy rubbed her forehead tiredly. "I'll make it possible. How was Barton compromised?"

"I'm not sure." Natasha admitted. "From what I can gather, Loki has a sceptre of sorts and he used it to recruit Clint and Erik Selvig."

"Recruit?" Peggy repeated. "What do you mean, recruit?"

"Possess." Natasha elaborated. "They're working for him now, and they have the Tesseract."

"Shit." Peggy sighed. "So you're my extraction?"

"Not exactly." Natasha admitted. "I'm heading for Calcutta, but if you want to talk to Captain Rogers before the shit hits the fan, you might want to get back to New York."

Peggy nodded. "I assume I'm getting a ride."  
>Natasha checked her phone. "There'll be a quinjet coming for you in half an hour; they'll bring you a debriefing packet. I have to go."<p>

Peggy caught her hand before she could leave. "Tasha. We're going to get him back."

"I know." Natasha said, but she didn't meet Peggy's eyes.

"Hey." Peggy said softly, touching the younger woman's cheek to regain her attention. "We are going to get him back."

Natasha managed a small smile. "I know." She repeated. "I know we'll get him back. It's what state he'll be in when we do that's worrying me."

Peggy's own heart ached at the thought, but she kept her face blank, even though Natasha probably read it in the set of her shoulders, and pressed a soft kiss to Natasha's forehead. "We'll get him back alive, and we'll work with him. We got you back; we'll get him back."

Natasha nodded and Peggy released her, stepping back to allow her to leave.

"Oh, Nat?"

Natasha stopped a few feet away, turning back to face her, one eyebrow raised questioningly.

"How did the op go?" Peggy asked.

Natasha's lips quirked in a more genuine smile. "Got them."

Peggy grinned. "That's my girl."

* * *

><p><strong>India<strong>

Calcutta, India, was a chaotic, bustling place, filled to the brim with people who never really looked at you.

It may not have been the best place to relax, but it was a good place to hide, especially if you wanted to do some good at the same time.

Dr Bruce Banner was just washing up after an examination of some sick children. Technically he wasn't a doctor of medicine, but he knew enough to pass for one, especially here, when the simplest things could make the biggest difference.

A commotion on the stairs to the makeshift surgery caught his attention – a young girl, about seven or eight years old, was pleading with the gatekeeper, Hindi spilling from her lips.

"Slow down." He told her in her native tongue.

The girl stopped and took a deep breath. "My father …" She began.

Bruce crouched down to her level, pointing across at the sick children. "Like them?"

She nodded, her lower lip trembling as she held out the money clutched in her shaking hand. "Pease?"

He couldn't turn her down. Grabbing his bag, he followed her out into the slums, towards a small shack on the very outskirts of the town. He caught her arm, stopping her from running into the path of a jeep, turning his face away as it passed. It was unlikely they were there looking for him, but he didn't want to take any chances.

As soon as it had passed, she took off again, darting across the road and into the shack. He followed her in, across the main room, and stopped in the doorway of an empty bedroom, his heart sinking as she climbed out of the window and disappeared.

"You should've got paid up front, Banner." He muttered to himself.

"You know, for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress," a cool female voice said, "you picked a hell of a place to settle."

Bruce turned hesitantly to face the woman who had emerged from the shadows. She was exceptionally beautiful, curled red hair brushing her shoulders, green eyes showing just a hint of trepidation in their depths. "Avoiding stress isn't the issue."

"Then what is it?" She asked. "Yoga?"

Bruce dropped his bag. "You brought me to the edge of the city. Smart." He peered through the window, but could see no one in the dim gloom outside. "I assume the whole place is surrounded."

She removed her wrap, placing it on the back of a chair. "Just you and me."

"And your actress buddy?" Bruce asked. "Is she a spy too?" Was it bad if he hoped she was, and not just an innocent child who had been threatened into helping this woman? "They start that young?"

"I did." She said in a measured tone.

"Who are you?" Bruce asked. He wasn't expecting a straight answer, but she surprised him.

"Natasha Romanoff."

Bruce didn't recognise the name, but he supposed someone could have hired her. She was an assassin, or at least a soldier; he could see it in the way she held herself, ready to strike at a moment's notice like a serpent. Her clothes suggested she wasn't there for a fight, but then that could be a ruse to lull him into a false sense of security. "Are you here to kill me, Miss Romanoff? Because that's not going to work out for everyone."

Natasha frowned. "No, no, of course not. I'm here on behalf of SHIELD."

"SHIELD?" Bruce repeated. "How'd they find me?"

"We never lost you, Doctor." Natasha said gently. "We've kept our distance. Even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent." In all honesty, she would have done that anyway – General Ross just rubbed her the wrong way, and she was more than happy to make his life difficult.

"Why?" Bruce asked.

"Nick Fury seems to trust you." Natasha answered. "But now we need you to come in."  
>Bruce raised an eyebrow. "What if I say no?"<p>

Natasha smiled slightly. "I'll persuade you."

He sighed. "And what if … the Other Guy says no?"

Natasha hesitated a second, swallowing down the fear. "You've been more than a year without an incident, I don't think you wanna break that streak."

Bruce smiled sadly. "Well, I don't every time get what I want."  
>Natasha couldn't help being afraid of what the man in front of her was capable of, but she also couldn't help the sympathy she felt for someone who clearly hated everything he was and everything he had done. She knew what that was like, better than most.<p>

But she had control over what she could do.

He didn't.

"Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe." She told him. She didn't have time or the energy to get into an existential debate – the SHIELD quinjets were faster than commercial flights, but she had already crossed the international dateline twice and flitted between three different time zones in less than six hours.

He cracked a smile. "Oh, those I actively try to avoid."

Natasha didn't smile back, pulling up a picture of the Tesseract on her phone and sliding it across the table, taking a seat as she did. "This is the Tesseract. It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet."

Bruce approached her, pulling a pair of glasses from his pocket and donning them to examine the photograph. "What does Fury want me to do? Swallow it?"

"He wants you to find it." Natasha corrected. "It's been taken. It emits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace. There's no one that knows gamma radiation like you do. If there was," she shrugged, appearing far more casual and unruffled than she was feeling, "that's where I'd be."

"So Fury isn't after the monster?" Bruce asked, setting the phone down.

"Not that he's told me." Natasha said.

"And he tells you everything?"

Natasha leaned forwards, resting her hands on her knees. "Talk to Fury. He needs you on this."

Bruce snorted. "He needs me in a cage."

"No one's going to put you in a cage …"

"Stop lying to me!" He roared, his hands slamming down on the table.

Natasha was out of her chair in a split second, the gun that had been taped to its underside in her hand and levelled at him.

The anger disappeared as fast as it had come, and he took a step back, holding up his hands with a bashful smile. "I'm sorry. That was mean. I just wanted to see what you'd do."

Whatever he'd been testing her for, she had clearly passed. Maybe it was the fact that she hadn't immediately shot him that proved to him that she saw him a man who unfortunately turned into a monster, rather than a monster sometimes disguised as a man.

"Why don't we do this the easy way," Bruce continued, "where you don't use that, and the Other Guy doesn't make a mess? Okay? Natasha?"

The use of her first name gave her pause, and she lowered her weapon experimentally. When he didn't move, she switched on her comm. "Stand down. We're good here."

No one responded, but she knew that the team of agents and soldiers outside had released their weapons at her order.

Bruce gave her a smile. "Just you and me?"

* * *

><p><strong>New York<strong>

_"War isn't won by sentiment, Director."_

_"No, it's won by soldiers."_

With his last words to the World Security Council ringing in his ears, there was really only one place Nick Fury could go.

Despite the late hour, he knew from the unobtrusive tail that Steve Rogers was not at his SHIELD-issued apartment, but at the local gym, and he arrived just in time to see the super-soldier knock the punching bag right across the room.

This was clearly not a new problem, given the way the man sighed and merely hung up a new one.

"Trouble sleeping?" Fury asked.

Steve glanced up, his eyes automatically searching for Peggy, as they had every time Fury had stopped by. "I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I had my fill."

"Then you should be out, celebrating." Fury told him. "Seeing the world."

Steve shook his head, abandoning the punching bag in favour of unwrapping the bandages around his hands. "When I went under, the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost." He didn't say that his situation would be easier with Peggy back in New York, and Fury didn't acknowledge it.

"We've made some mistakes along the way." Fury conceded. "Some very recently."

"Are you here with a mission, sir?" Steve asked.

"I am."

Steve smiled slightly. "Trying to get me back in the world?"

"Trying to save it." Fury corrected, handing him the folder in his hands.

Steve opened it curiously, his breath catching at the electric blue cube of energy. "HYDRA's secret weapon."

"Howard Stark fished that out of the water when he was looking for you." Fury explained. "He thought what we think – the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs."

Steve frowned. "Who took it from you?"

"He's called Loki. He's …" Fury hesitated. "Not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know."

"At this point, I doubt anything could surprise me." Steve muttered.

"Ten bucks says you're wrong." Fury said flatly.

Hoisting one of the punching bags on to his shoulder, Steve made his way out of the gym.

"There's a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment." Fury called after him. "Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"

"You should have left it in the ocean." Steve said tersely.

Fury shook his head. That had gone fairly well, but then Steve was the one he had been expecting to agree to help without any real trouble. They had Peggy, Steve and Natasha on board, Natasha had convinced Banner to come and help them, and now all Coulson had to do was talk Tony Stark round. It was unlikely to be easy, but if Coulson had any sense, he'd join forces with Pepper Potts.

God knew she was the one in charge around there, after all.

* * *

><p><strong>Stark Tower<strong>

Much as Peggy had anticipated, once the adrenaline of the events at the Stark Expo had worn off, Pepper had chosen to remain at Stark Industries as CEO.

"With one condition," she had said firmly, "that you _tell_ me everything – and I do mean everything – that's going on, so I know what to expect."

After a killer first week, with things settling back to normal, and she found herself genuinely enjoying her new role.

Admittedly, she had already been partly running the company as Tony's PA, given the amount of times she made him go to meetings, summarised contracts and filtered him so he didn't cause any unnecessary drama over the years.

But now she actually had say over decisions, and it was a few months before she made a suggestion she had been thinking about for a while.

People wanted the arc reactor technology and they weren't going to stop trying to get it.

So why not give it to them in a controlled manner?

Tony was completely behind the idea and the construction of Stark Tower started in the middle of Manhattan, a ninety-three-storey triumph of modern architecture, which would hopefully (if all went according to plan) be powered solely by its own arc reactor.

Pepper already had a number of businesses lined up wanting to rent office space in the lower floors, but the top forty were currently private.

What Tony wanted with forty private floors she didn't know, but she did know that there was a swimming pool, a gym and a lavish penthouse apartment that he was pretending wasn't 'theirs' because "that would mean us actually living together, Pep, and we both know I'm not built for that kind of responsibility".

For the time being, however, she was watching about three different screens at once, keeping an eye on the various energy levels, waiting for Tony to finish his work at the bottom of the harbour, because if this didn't work, all other future plans were meaningless.

_"Good to go on this end." _He told her over his headset. _"The rest is up to you."_

"You disconnected the transmission lines?" Pepper checked. "Are we off the grid?"

_"Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy."_

Pepper smirked. "Assuming the arc reactor takes over and it actually works."

_"I assume." _He responded, but she could hear him humouring her. _"Light her up."_

Pepper turned on the power again, blinking as the lights turned on. The computer in front of her had been running on battery power, but the rest of the room had been almost pitch black, lit only by the lights of the city outside the wall-to-wall glass windows.

Now, as well as the interior lights, the electric blue glow of the sign adorning the Tower could be seen through the windows, and she smiled. "How does it look?"

_"Like Christmas." _Tony answered. _"Only with more … me."_

Pepper laughed. "We've gotta go wider on the public awareness campaign. You need to do some Press. I'm in DC tomorrow, working on the zoning for the next three buildings …"

_"Pepper, you're killing me here!" _He groaned, landing outside the tower. _"The moment, remember? Enjoy the moment."_

"Get in here and I will." She purred, ending the call.

"Sir, Agent Coulson of SHIELD is on the line." Jarvis announced, as Tony sauntered along the balcony, robotic arms reaching up from the floor to dismantle his armour.

"Tell him I'm not in." Tony said, as the helmet disappeared. "I'm actually out."

"Sir, I'm afraid he's insisting …"

"Grow a spine, Jarvis." Tony said, stepping out of the boots. "I've got a date."

Pepper glanced up as he entered. "Power levels are holding steady," she told him, chewing on her lower lip, "I think."

"Of course they are." Tony said dismissively, removing his earpiece and tossing it on to the desk. "I was directly involved. Speaking of which, how does it feel to be a genius?"

Pepper laughed again, this time quiet and self-deprecating. "Well I really wouldn't know, would I?"

"What do you mean?" Tony asked. "All this came from you."

Pepper shook her head with a smile. "No. All this came from that." She corrected, tapping the arc reactor in his chest.

"Give yourself some credit." Tony told her. "Please. Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself … twelve percent of the credit."

"Twelve percent." Pepper repeated.

"An argument could be made for fifteen." Tony said hastily.

"Twelve percent?! Of my baby?!"

"Well, I did do all the heavy lifting." Tony pointed out, following her across the living room. "Literally, I lifted the heavy things. And sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you."

Pepper shook her head with a fond smile, too used to Tony's foot-in-mouth habits to maintain her anger, pouring them both a glass of champagne.

"My private elevator." Tony reminded her.

"_Our_ elevator." Pepper corrected.

"It was teeming with sweaty workmen." Tony paused, his words catching up with him. "I'm gonna pay for that percentage comment in some subtle way later, aren't I?"

Pepper handed him a glass with a sweet smile. "It's not gonna be that subtle."

"I tell you what." Tony said. "The next building is gonna say Potts on the tower."

"On the lease." Pepper corrected.

Tony sucked in a breath. "Call your mom, can you bunk over?"

Pepper laughed, but her response was drowned out by Jarvis.

"Sir, the telephone … I'm afraid my protocols are being overridden."

_"Mr Stark, we need to talk!"_

Tony sighed, grabbing his cell phone. "You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark," he said flatly, causing Pepper to almost snort her champagne. "Please leave a message."

_"This is urgent."_

"Then leave it urgently …" Tony began, trailing off as the elevator doors opened. "Security breach! It's on you." He added to his girlfriend, who ignored him.

"Mr Stark." Coulson greeted.

"Phil!" Pepper said with a smile. "Come in!"

"Phil?" Tony repeated.

"I can't stay." Coulson told her apologetically, stepping out into the living room.

"His first name is 'Agent'." Tony protested, following Pepper over the elevator.

"Come on in." Pepper insisted. "We're celebrating."

"Which is why he can't stay." Tony muttered.

"We need you to look this over as soon as possible." Coulson told him, holding out a tablet.

Tony eyed it with no shortage of trepidation. "I don't like to be handed things."

"That's fine." Pepper said. "Because I love to be handed things, so let's trade." She took the tablet, handing Coulson her champagne, taking Tony's drink from him instead and pushing the computer into his hands. "Thank you."

Tony rolled his eyes as Pepper gave Coulson a conspiring smile. "Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday."

"It's not a consultation." Coulson said grimly.

"Is this about the Avengers?" Pepper asked. "Which I know nothing about." She added hastily.

"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought," Tony said, taking the tablet over to his computer. "And I didn't even qualify."

"I didn't know that either." Pepper said, honestly this time.

Tony snorted. "Apparently, I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others?"

"That I did know." Pepper added, expecting to get a smile from Phil. She did, but a rather preoccupied one, and her sense of concern grew a little bit more.

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore." Coulson said.

"Whatever." Tony muttered. "Ms Potts? Got a second?"

Pepper sighed. "Half a mo." She said to Phil, crossing the floor to join Tony.

"I thought we were having a moment." He murmured.

Pepper smiled sweetly. "I was having twelve percent of a moment." She glanced over her shoulder, the smile fading away. "This seems serious, Phil's pretty shaken.

"How would you know if it's … Why is he Phil?" Tony asked.

"What is all this?" Pepper asked.

"This is …" Tony sighed. "This." With a quick gesture, various screens formed holographs in the air, information about the Avengers Initiative, Loki, and a strange glowing cube that seemed far too important to be missing.

"I'm gonna take the jet to DC tonight." Pepper whispered.

"Tomorrow." Tony insisted.

Pepper shook her head. "You have homework. You have a lot of homework."

"Well, what if I didn't?" Tony asked.

"If you didn't?" Pepper asked; he nodded. "You mean when you've finished? Well …" She leaned in closer, her lips brushing his ear. "I'll have much more than twelve percent of a moment, in a certain black and lacy number that I'm sure you'll approve of."

As she pulled back, he swallowed hard and nodded. "Square deal; fly safe."

Pepper gave him a knowing smile and pressed a soft kiss to his lips, passing the silent message that would not have remained unspoken had they been alone.

_"I love you. Be safe."_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Told you this would be quick. Don't get too used to it though - I just wanted to upload these two chapters together, because I know the last one was a little canon-heavy.<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: This was going to be part of the next chapter, but ... Steve and Peggy got away from me. In case you're wondering, yes, this is going to follow the plot of the Avengers, but it will continue into the aftermath.**

* * *

><p>Phil Coulson was a godsend, Peggy decided. In the midst of the chaos and drama, he had somehow found the time to slip Steve's address into the debriefing packet waiting for her on the quinjet.<p>

As soon as they touched down in New York, Peggy made a beeline for the apartment building. She had a small office on the hellicarrier, with a change of clothes, so going back to her own house was unnecessary, and pointless, considering Steve was _here_.

There was no answer when she knocked on the door, but Phil's note had explained that he was picking them up at 0600 the following morning, so Steve would soon return from wherever he was.

The building was one that SHIELD had used in the past for various stakeouts and safe houses and, unwilling to linger in the hallway for too long, lest she be recognised and questioned, she drew a thin bobby pin from her hair and used it to pick the lock, stooping to pick up the SHIELD file that had been slipped under the door, tucking it under her arm.

The only light in the small apartment spilled in from the lights of the city outside through the open drapes, and she didn't bother turning on the lights, heaving a sad sigh at the old-fashioned furnishings. Clearly, someone at SHIELD had decided to provide Steve with a taste of the familiar, but it just served to highlight how much had changed since they had last met.

Her eyes fell on the coffee table beside the threadbare couch, on the pile of personnel files that lay there and she picked them up, flicking through them to see the younger faces of the Howling Commandos, each one stamped with a red 'deceased' marker, including her own, and her heart ached for him.

_Thank God we had that talk._

There was so much they needed to talk about, so much to catch up on, but they wouldn't have much time before the quinjet arrived, especially not if they wanted to catch some sleep as well (and she _would_ need to; she hadn't slept in over twenty four hours by this point).

A soft noise in the hallway caught her attention and she dropped the personnel files back on to the coffee table, placing the debriefing packet on top of it.

The door swung open and Steve stepped into the apartment, what looked like a punching bag slung over one shoulder. He had the door closed and the bag on the ground before he realised he wasn't alone, and she smiled, settling almost automatically into parade rest.

"Hello, Steve."

"Peggy …"

His voice was filled with no less emotion than the last time she heard it, and she itched to run to him, but she held herself back. "I hope you don't mind, but I picked the lock."

"It's fine." Steve said hastily, seemingly rooted to the spot. "I just … didn't think I'd see you until tomorrow."

"Well, I got back to New York about fifteen minutes ago." Peggy said with a shrug. "Figured I could go home, grab some sleep and a change of clothes, or I could come here, see you, and use the change of clothes I have on the carrier." Her smile widened. "Sleep's non-negotiable though."

Steve nodded, and took a tentative step towards her. "I'm glad you're home."

Something inside her snapped, and she threw caution to the wind, throwing herself into the arms he hastily opened for her, burying her face in his broad chest, the reassuring thudding of his heart against her cheek filling her with joy and relief.

For a long time, they stood there, clinging to each other, taking time to appreciate the fact that they were no longer alone in a very different world.

Finally, Steve heaved a sigh. "I need to shower."

Peggy took a deep breath and wrinkled her nose, although didn't loosen her grip. "Yes you do."

Steve chuckled and she felt it travel through her. "I missed you. I was starting to think that I'd imagined that call."

Peggy leaned back in his arms, tilting her head back to see his face. "I'm sorry."

Steve shook his head hastily. "Don't be. Did you get them?"

"Oh yeah." Peggy said with a satisfied smirk.

"Then it was worth the wait." Steve said, loosening his grip. "I really do need a shower. Fury said something about a debriefing packet as well …"

"Coffee table." Peggy told him, reluctantly releasing him.

"We've got a lot to talk about." Steve said.

"We do." Peggy agreed. "But can I suggest we stick to the important stuff for now? We can sort out everything else after we've saved the world."

Steve tilted his head slightly. "What do you class as important?"

Peggy thought for a second. "Anything that's going to make us want to shoot ourselves for not mentioning if one of us dies."

Steve grimaced. "Alright, but on the condition that we don't talk about dying again."

"Deal." Peggy said immediately, giving him a little push in the direction of the bathroom. "Go on, shower. I'll wait."

Steve gave her a shy smile. "I won't be long."

He took a change of clothes into the bathroom with him, probably a throw-back to the lack of private space in the barracks, so she kicked her shoes off and wandered into the small bedroom after him, perching on the edge of the bed, made up with military precision.

It was inexcusable, how little support he had. Soldiers found it hard to readjust to civilian life under the best of circumstances, without factoring in the culture jump from the 1940s to the 21st century.

However, there was a time and a place to get upset about it, and here and now was not it.

Here and now was the time and place for Peggy to decide whether she should discuss Tony with Steve or not.

On the one hand, Tony was likely to be called in – it didn't take a genius to realise that Fury was falling back on the Avengers Initiative, and whatever the psych profile said, they _needed_ Tony.

On the other hand, discussing Tony meant discussing Howard, which deserved a much longer conversation and hardly fell into 'important' as she had defined it.

The problem was that she knew Tony and she knew Steve and she had a gut feeling that they would mix like oil and water.

Steve was likely to suppress any dislike if he knew how important Tony was to Peggy, which she would normally be eager to do, were it not for the fact that it would probably be better if they aired their differences sooner rather than later.

She stifled a yawn and tried to stop thinking. There was no point in worrying about this now – she could assess the situation when they _actually_ met. For now, she could take the opportunity to rest her eyes while Steve showered.

She jolted awake what only felt like a few minutes later, her heart racing, and her eyes darted around the room as she tried to calm herself.

The room was darker now, and she was lying down, a soft blanket thrown over her. Steve was sitting in a chair between the bed and the bathroom door, a sketchpad lying on his lap, the debriefing packet on the nightstand, watching her with concern. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." Peggy said, sitting up. "I didn't mean to fall asleep."

Steve smiled. "I guessed that. But you did say that you needed it."

"What are you working on?" Peggy asked, climbing off the bed to unmake it.

"Just some sketches." Steve answered vaguely, flipping the pad closed and setting it aside.

"Couldn't sleep?"

Steve didn't meet her eyes. "Slept for seventy years."

"Sixty five." Peggy corrected, climbing back into the bed, under the covers. "And comas don't work like that. Nightmares?"

"No." Steve answered, a little too quickly. "I'm just not tired."

"Alright." Peggy said, although she didn't believe him. "Well, I do get nightmares, so can I use you as a pillow?"

"Are you sure?" Steve asked, standing. "We are getting a pick-up in the morning."

Peggy smiled warmly at him. "Relax, Steve. My reputation isn't going to get blasted because I spent the night here. I know the guy coming for us, and he'd be surprised if I _didn't_." She reached a hand towards him. "Now would you please come here? I know you were starting to worry that you'd imagined talking to me, but I've spent the better part of seven decades thinking you were dead, so I'd like a bit more tangible proof."

With only a moment's hesitation, Steve slid into bed beside her, and she curled into his side, resting her head over his heart, the remainder of her tension seeping out of her at the contact.

"Nightmares?" Steve questioned, wrapping an arm around her.

He was trembling ever so slightly and she sighed into his chest. She didn't think they'd ever been this close and, if they had, it would certainly not have been as intimate as this was. "Most nights, I hear the crash. Some nights I just see you, struggling to breathe, asking me why we haven't found you yet."

Steve's arm tightened around her. "I'm sorry." He whispered, his voice anguished. "I'm so sorry …"

"No." Peggy said sharply, her fingers fisting in his shirt. "Don't you dare apologise, Steve. You don't owe me an apology. I'm glad you called, that we knew where you were." Her voice softened. "I'm just glad you're home now."

"There is one apology I owe you." Steve said.

Peggy tilted her head up to see his face. "Oh?"

"I'm sorry I'm late."

Peggy laughed, pressing a spontaneous kiss to his jaw. "Oh, darling, you're forgiven. You do still owe me a dance though."

"Do people still go dancing now?" Steve asked wistfully.

"No." Peggy admitted. "At least, not the kind of dancing you're thinking of, but we can improvise. I have a fairly large living room and a record player."

"That sounds nice." Steve said, his hand gently running up and down her arm, lulling her back to sleep. "We'll talk after we've saved the world though. The last time we made a date first …"

Peggy flinched, catching his other hand. "Good point. I need to …"

"There's one other …" Steve said at the same time.

They broke off, and Peggy laughed. "Go on."

"No, ladies first." Steve said.

Peggy wrinkled her nose and poked him gently. "Don't argue with me, Captain; you know I'll win."

"Yes, ma'am." Steve said, laughter in his voice. "There's one other thing I need to tell you, before we walk into this."

The laughter faded to something much more serious, and Peggy shifted so their eyes could meet more comfortably. "Something wrong?"

"No." Steve said quietly. "But you deserve to know." He took a deep breath and she laced her fingers with his, squeezing gently. "Peggy, I … I am completely in love with you. Have been since you punched that idiot in the face, I think."

For a second, Peggy forgot how to breathe, a radiant smile crossing her face. "Well, isn't that convenient?" She asked, somehow keeping her voice steady. "Because I've been in love with you since you jumped on a dummy grenade."

Steve had always had a truly beautiful smile, but it was nothing compared to the way his face lit up now. He released her hand in favour of brushing the hair from her face and she tilted her head invitingly, melting into the kiss he bestowed upon her.

Their first kiss had been harried, desperate, a split-second decision born out of a fear that she would never see him again.

Of course, that was still a very real fear, but now they had _time_, time to explore, time to indulge, and they parted sooner than they would have liked, but later than anyone without enhanced lung capacity could have managed.

"Mm, that was well worth the wait." Peggy murmured, settling back into the curve of his arms.

"You're exhausted." Steve observed quietly, stroking her hair. "Go back to sleep. I've got watch."

"We're going to talk about your sleeping patterns when we get out of this." Peggy told him, already slipping back under.

For the first time in sixty five years, she didn't dream.


	5. Chapter 5

When Peggy awoke the following morning, it was with far more grace than her sudden start during the night, and it took her a few minutes to really wake up, nuzzling against Steve's broad chest as it rose and fell rhythmically.

He had fallen asleep as well at some point, something Peggy was relieved to see, but whatever had woken her (and something had, she was far too warm and comfortable to have woken naturally) didn't seem to have bothered him in the slightest.

In fact, it took her a few minutes to realise that it was a gentle buzzing in her pocket that had woken her, and she extracted her cell phone to find a message waiting for her from Phil.

_ETA fifteen minutes._

Peggy fired off a quick text confirming that she'd received it and asking Phil to pick up a few things on the way. She'd let the blonde of her hair fade back to brown over the last few months and she didn't have time to dye it again before returning to the helicarrier, but coloured contacts would at least maintain the illusion of Sharon, not to mention the fact that everyone would be more focused on the impending end of the world to worry about her sudden even-more-uncanny resemblance to her 'great-aunt'.

The thought was sobering, and she sighed, disentangling herself from Steve's arms to sit up. "Steve."

Steve stirred slightly, but didn't move, and she smiled fondly, brushing the hair from his face. "Come on, solider, time to get up." She toyed absently with the idea of playing the reveille on her phone, but that could well backfire. "Steve."

His eyes flickered open, blinking in confusion, and a spark of fear entered them that just about broke her heart.

"Ssh." She soothed, leaning down to kiss his forehead. "You're alright, Steve. It's May 2012. We're in your bed, in the apartment SHIELD set up for you, in New York."

He blinked again, the fear fading away as he rubbed a hand over his face. "Good morning."

"Good morning to you too." Peggy said with a smile. "Sleep well?"

"Yes, actually." Steve said, sounding surprised. "I didn't even realise I'd fallen asleep. Thanks for just now."

"It's fine." Peggy said, frowning slightly. "Were you alone when you woke up the first time?"

Steve nodded.

"And that was the first time you've slept since then?" She prompted.

Steve sighed heavily. "Yes. Not for lack of trying."

Peggy smiled reassuringly. "Well, we'll pick that up afterwards. We need to go and save the world. Agent Coulson's bringing me a change of clothes, so do you mind if I grab a shower?"

"Not at all." Steve said, waving his hand towards the bathroom as he sat up. "You'll end up smelling like me though."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Peggy said cheekily, pulling him into a brief kiss before getting out of bed. She retrieved her purse from the living room and rifled through it to find a hair brush. "You read the debriefing then. Any questions?"

"Nothing urgent." Steve answered. "But why was the Tesseract even in play?"

Peggy grimaced. "Don't ask me. I didn't like the idea the first time around. I knew something would go wrong, and now …"

"How well do you know the compromised agents?" Steve asked.

"I don't know Michael Reed at all." Peggy said, running the brush through her hair. "He was NASA security for the scientists working on the Cube. Dr Selvig I only know by reputation, but he seems a good man. Agent Barton …" Her voice wavered and she cleared her throat. "Clint is a very dear friend and we are going to get him back even if I have to kill Loki to do it."

Steve slipped his arms around her waist and she dropped the brush to lean back against him gratefully. "Have you known him long?"

Peggy thought for a second. "About twenty years."

Had it really been that long? Sharon had lasted twice as long in SHIELD than either of her predecessors.

"He was eighteen when he joined up." She continued. "Sniper. Prefers arrows to bullets. Likes to spend his time in the ventilation systems. He's one of the few who knows who and what I am."

And wasn't _that_ concerning, the thought of what damage could be done, just with a name, and not just to her. Whatever Clint was forced to do under Loki's control, he would consider being forced to betray someone's trust so intimately to be the worst.

"Speaking of which," she added, shaking herself of those morbid thoughts, "on the carrier, it's Agent Carter or Sharon. Or Agent Thirteen, but I very rarely go by that and you'll get away with Agent Carter."

"Force of habit." Steve said with a smile. "I'll manage."

"Coulson will be here in fifteen … ten minutes." Peggy amended, glancing at the time. "So I'm going to grab a shower and if you can just throw the change of clothes in here when he arrives?" She set the brush aside, let him pull her into one more kiss, and locked herself in the tiny bathroom.

The pipes creaked ominously and her clothes hit the floor with no semblance of ceremony, getting nudged aside by her foot while she waited for the water to warm.

'Warm', as it turned out, was not the most accurate of descriptions. In fact, it was only accurate in that it was warmer than drinking water, but not by much, and she could only hope that this was a fluke, and that SHIELD weren't really depriving a man who had crashed a plane into the Arctic of decently heated water.

It was tolerable, though, and warmer than the showers that she had been putting up with for the last six months, so she stepped in.

It turned out that it wasn't just the water temperature and the apartment décor that SHIELD was losing points on. The soap looked eerily familiar and a quick sniff transported her back to cramped barracks, to field hospitals, and even further than that, to the underground stations of London, pressed up against her mother as they navigated the twists and turns through hordes of people.

_There's keeping things familiar and taking things too far. _She thought to herself. _And this is definitely the latter._

She had just stepped out of the shower when she heard the bedroom door open and close and, sure enough, there was a folded pile of clothes sitting on the bed, including her SHIELD uniform.

She dressed quickly, checked the fitting, and stepped out into the living room, breaking the awkward silence.

"Good morning, Agent Coulson."

"Morning, Agent Carter." Phil responded, holding out a cup of coffee.

"I've got you well-trained." Peggy said with a smile. "Quinjet waiting?"

"On the roof." Phil confirmed, handing her a small plastic box.

Peggy took a gulp of coffee and set it to one side, retrieving her compact mirror from her purse. "Thanks."

"What are they?" Steve asked curiously.

"Contact lenses." Peggy answered. "Has no one given you a run-through of the 21st century?"

"Not really." Steve said. "I'm kind of figuring it out as I go."

"Don't look at me." Phil said, when Peggy gave him a scolding look. "I've been in New Mexico."

Peggy sniffed, but turned back to Steve. "They're kind of like glasses, Steve, except you apply them directly to your eye. Some of them correct your vision – these change the colour of my eyes so people don't recognise me for … well, me. Normally, I have blonde hair as well, but this is going to have to suffice."

"Doesn't that hurt?" Steve asked, watching in fascination as her eyes turned from brown to blue.

"No." Peggy assured him. "It was a little uncomfortable when I first used them, but I'm used to it now." She blinked a few times, letting them settle, and gave a satisfied nod. "Gentlemen, shall we?"

* * *

><p>The ride to the carrier was mostly quiet. Peggy sat beside Steve, talking him through the StarkPad and Dr Banner's profile, familiarising herself with it at the same time.<p>

Steve had been silent as he read through the information, flicking through the security footage of the Hulk rampaging across Harlem with an unreadable expression, but now, as Coulson gave them his complete attention once more, he spoke. "So Dr Banner was trying to recreate the formula they used on me?"

It was the first thing he'd said aloud since they'd boarded the quinjet – at least, the first that had been directed at Phil and not at Peggy.

"A lot of people were." Phil answered. "You were the world's first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula."

"Didn't really go his way, did it?" Steve murmured, bringing up the security footage once more.

"Not so much." Phil agreed.

"Poor guy." Peggy muttered, despite the images of destruction that played out across the screen. She couldn't help feeling guilty every time an attempt went tragically wrong, because she was certain that Howard would have been able to figure out the formula eventually, if he hadn't given it to her.

"When he's not that thing, though, guy's like a Stephen Hawking."

Steve frowned slightly in confusion, and Peggy added, "Agent Coulson is trying to explain that Dr Banner is a genius." She could see Phil fidgeting out of the corner of his eye, and gave him an encouraging smile. While Steve had always disliked the fame that came with being Captain America, Phil was going to say something eventually and it was better it happened here than on the carrier where people (Natasha) could gather blackmail material.

"I gotta say, it's an honour to meet you." He said finally. "Officially. I've sort of met you. I mean, I watched you … while you were sleeping."

Peggy let a giggle slip out, both at Phil's unintentional slip and the look of supreme discomfort on Steve's face.

"I mean, I was present, while you were unconscious from the ice." Phil elaborated.

"Better." Peggy said, frowning slightly. "Where were you when he woke up then?"

There was no blame in her voice, she had a feeling she knew the answer, and sure enough …

"Natasha ended up in medical." Phil said. "I assumed I would be covered."

Peggy made a small noise of understanding as Steve stood up. She immediately missed his warmth beside her, and scolded herself for doing so. He had always felt the need to move around rather just sit and accept his fame.

"It's really … it's just a huge honour to have you on board." Phil said, finally getting out the words he'd been aiming for.

"I hope I'm the man for the job." Steve said in a low voice.

"Oh, you are." Phil assured him. "Absolutely. We made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input."

"Phil, don't go quitting on us." Peggy warned good-naturedly. "Regardless of your other interests, you're the best we've got."

"The uniform?" Steve repeated. "Aren't the stars and stripes a little … old-fashioned?"

Peggy raised an eyebrow, checking her phone. "I wear stars and stripes." She grinned the second he started to apologise. "Sorry, that was mean. You're right, but people respond to it. Makes them feel better."

"Plus, with everything that's going on … the things that are about to come to light …" Phil paused. "Well, people might just need a little old fashioned."

Steve nodded absently, then did a double take, looking at Peggy. "Wait, what? Why do you wear stars and stripes?"

Peggy raised an eyebrow. "No one's told you? Then this _is_ going to be fun."


	6. Chapter 6

The explanation about the creation of Lady Liberty and her subsequent work lasted the remainder of the journey, and the quinjet landed on the carrier exactly thirty minutes later, the rear hatch opening to allow the three passengers to disembark.

Phil beckoned a crewman over. "Stow Agent Carter and the Captain's gear."

"Yes sir."

"Morning Nat." Peggy greeted, as Natasha approached them.

Natasha nodded. "Sharon."

"Agent Romanoff," Phil said, "Captain Rogers."

Steve gave her a smile. "Ma'am."

"Hi." Natasha said, turning to Phil. "They need you on the bridge. They're starting the face trace."

Peggy absently acknowledged Phil's departure, focussing on Steve. "Natasha's one of the few people who knows the truth. She saved my life in Europe."

"I'd say we're even by now." Natasha said, falling into step beside them. "It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice." She added to Steve. "I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Has he asked you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

"Trading cards?" Steve repeated, startled.

"They're vintage." Peggy said. "He's very proud." She almost smiled at the incredulous expression on his face, but bit it back in favour of patting his arm sympathetically. "It took him a few years to get up the courage to ask me to sign them, don't worry." Her steps faltered slightly as she caught sight of the man waiting nervously by one of the planes. "Coulson said you convinced him, Tasha, but I didn't quite believe it."

"Dr Banner." Steve greeted, extending his hand.

Banner exuded nervousness, something that made Peggy just a little bit nervous herself. All intelligence seemed to suggest that the man's alter-ego appeared when he was angry, but she wasn't entirely convinced that fear didn't help to coax him out as well.

Nevertheless, she gave him a smile and followed Steve's example. "Sharon Carter. It's pleasure to meet you, Doctor."

"Word is you can find the cube." Steve added.

Banner gave them a self-deprecating smile. "Is that the only word on me?"

"Only word I care about." Steve said firmly.

Banner's smile grew a little more genuine and he gestured towards the hustle and bustle around them. "Must be strange for you, all of this."

Steve shrugged. "Actually, this is kind of familiar."

"Gentlemen," Natasha interrupted, a hint of a smirk in her voice, "you might wanna step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe."

"Thanks for the warning." Peggy muttered, switching her communicator to public, her voice joining almost seamlessly with the PA system. "FLIGHT CREW, SECURE THE DECK."

"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked in bewilderment as alarms began blaring across the carrier.

"Really?" Banner asked, snorting sardonically. "They want _me_ in a submerged pressurised metal container?"

Peggy watched, amused, as both men approached the edge of the carrier, peering down at the turbo engines that were emerging from the murky depths and preparing for take-off.

"Oh, no, this is much worse." Banner concluded.

"Time to get inside." Peggy said, switching the radio frequency back to private.

"I'm not sure if this is a good idea." Banner repeated.

Peggy gave him a reassuring smile. "Just let us know if there's anything we can do to make things easier."

They followed Natasha inside to the bridge and main control room, the redhead throwing a glance over her shoulder to catch the amazement that crossed Steve's face. Peggy drifted closer to him, their arms brushing, giving him a form of anchor to deal with yet another reminder of how drastically the world had changed.

The carrier could overwhelm someone born in the 21st century, and not even a month ago for Steve, a meeting like this would have been held in a dark tent with a wireless and a map.

The command centre was a bustle of activity, each agent working flawlessly with those around them to get the carrier airborne. Amidst the scurrying agents, like a queen bee in the centre of the hive, Maria Hill was taking charge. "All engines operating. SHIELD Emergency Protocol 193.6 in effect." She turned to Fury. "We're at level, sir."

"Good." Fury said. "Let's vanish."

Hill nodded sharply. "Engage retro-reflection panels."

Steve's jaw dropped. "Are we seriously …?"

"Going to turn invisible?" Peggy finished quietly. "No. But the retro-reflection panels reflect the sky around us and make it look like we have."

A moment later, one of the bridge technicians responded. "Reflection panels engaged."

Satisfied, Fury turned to face the newcomers. "Gentlemen."

Without a word, Steve reached into his pocket, pulled out a ten dollar bill, and handed it to Fury. Whatever the reason behind the exchange, it clearly made sense to the director, who pocketed it with a smile, and directed his attention to Peggy. "Agent Carter."

"Director Fury." Peggy greeted. "I hope you're not expecting a mission debrief at this precise moment in time."

"There is every possibility certain facts are going to come to light during this." He warned.

Peggy sighed. "If they come to light, they come to light. Let's handle damage control when we know what damage has been done."

Fury nodded in agreement, turning to Banner with his hand outstretched. "Dr Banner, thank you for coming."

Banner only hesitated momentarily, before shaking his hand. "Thanks for asking nicely. So how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind." Fury assured him.

"Where are you with that?" Peggy asked, following Natasha to the edge of the walkway to check on Clint's face-trace. She had lost count of the number of times she had seen this technology in action, but it was unsettling, seeing Clint's face on the screen, his information laid out beneath it, as though he was their enemy.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet." Phil answered. "Cell phones, laptops … if it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

"It's still not gonna find 'em in time." Natasha concluded, with the certainty of a woman who had made herself disappear numerous times and knew what her partner was capable of.

"You have to narrow your field." Banner said, shedding his jacket. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

Peggy turned her back on the trace to give the man her full attention. All nervousness had evaporated now he was in his element.

Nick shrugged. "How many are there?"

"Call every lab you know." Banner told him. "Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we can rule out a few places." He paused. "Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

Fury nodded, waving Natasha over. "Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr Banner to his laboratory please?"

Natasha nodded sharply, any and all traces of her concern for Clint vanishing behind her mask. "You're gonna love it, Doc; we've got all the toys."

As she led Banner away, Steve stepped closer to Peggy. "And for those of us who aren't geniuses?"

Peggy gave him a stern look. "Don't pretend you don't have a brain, Steve. You're more intelligent that people give you credit for."

"Alright." Steve conceded, a slight smile on his face. "For those of us who've never encountered this technology before?"

Peggy smiled. "The computers are searching images we can get from various cameras across the globe and running them through a program that compares any faces against those of Loki and Agent Barton. It's all mathematic, looks at the distance between their eyes, length of their nose, that kind of thing. When we get a match, we'll get an alert. We're assuming the Tesseract is with them, so Dr Banner is going to work his magic, see if we can find places giving off more than the usual amount of gamma radiation, and then we can focus our efforts on those places, rather than the entire planet."

"And yet we have no flying cars." Steve quipped.

Peggy laughed. "I know. Howard owes me twenty bucks." Her smile faded quickly. "At least he would."

For a few moments, the spectre of Howard Stark seemed to loom over them, bringing with him everything Peggy did not want to deal with right at this moment.

Phil stepped on to the walkway beside her and she seized the opportunity gratefully, the spectre dissolving instantly. "Any luck."

"Not yet." Phil said, looking uncharacteristically sheepish.

Peggy smirked. "Do you want Captain Rogers to sign your trading cards?"

Phil turned a deep red, scrambling for words. "Well … I … I mean … not now … that would be … but … later … maybe … if it's not too much trouble …"

"No, no." Steve assured him. "It's fine."

Peggy smiled at him, sensing the sincerity in his tone.

"It's a vintage set." Phil added, clearly aware of it as well. "Took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint. Slight foxing around the edges but …"

"We've got a hit!" Sitwell called. "67 percent match! Wait … cross-checking … 79 percent."

"Where?" Phil asked, crossing the room to see for himself.

"Stuttgart, Germany." Sitwell read. "28 Konigstrasse – he's not exactly hiding."

"Captain, you're up." Fury said, before lowering his voice. "Carter, make yourself scarce."

Peggy nodded, jerking her head towards the door. "C'mon, Cap, I'll show you where the uniform is."

Steve followed her off of the bridge and down into the lower levels of the carrier. "I can't work out if you're Fury's superior or he's yours."

Peggy smiled. "Little bit of both, I suppose. No one's told you about SHIELD yet, have they?"

"I got the basics." Steve said with a frown. "Why, did you have something to do with the start-up?"

"I was the original director." Peggy said, punching in the access code. "But I'll give you the full story later. We've got work to do."

"We?" Steve asked.

"Yes, we." Peggy said, as the door slid back. "Uniform's over there." She added needlessly. It was sitting behind glass like a museum exhibit, the name _Captain S Rogers_ written beneath it.

She wasn't sure who had labelled it that, instead of _Captain America_, but she made a note to find out and thank them.

While Steve retrieved it, she extracted her own uniform from its hiding place.

Peggy didn't think twice about stripping down and changing there. As far as Steve was concerned, 1945 was two months ago, and privacy had been a rare thing during the war. They were working now, and she was Agent Carter, not Peggy, so he wouldn't even consider looking.

Not that she'd mind if he did.

Sure enough, when she turned around, he was changed, and facing away from her. Taking a moment to admire the way the uniform clung to his posterior, she cleared her throat. "You can turn around."

She let her eyes rake up his body as he did and when they settled on his face, he had turned slightly pink. "Sorry." She said, non-apologetically. "I'm only human."

He made a few strangled attempts to speak, before giving up and sweeping her into a kiss that would have been at home on a Hollywood movie set.

It was hardly the appropriate time or place, but she couldn't help melting into it, caressing his face as he pulled away. "Not that I'm complaining," she whispered, a little breathless, "but what was that for?"

"I know you said stars and stripes." Steve said, releasing her. "But I think it looks better on you."

Peggy laughed, tying her hair back. "I'll have to disagree with you on that one, Captain." She said, pulling on her helmet and strapping on the shield.

"Why didn't they just call _you_ Captain America?" Steve asked.

"They did for the first year." Peggy admitted. "And then realised I wasn't male." Her comm crackled in her ear, and she held up a hand to stop his response. "Captain Rogers ready for duty, sir." She said, handing Steve his own earpiece. "Instructions."

_"Agent Romanoff is waiting in a quinjet to fly Captain Rogers and Lady Liberty to Stuttgart."_

"Understood." Peggy said, glancing at Steve. "Ready?"

Steve gestured to the door. "After you, Agent Carter."


	7. Chapter 7

**Those of you who are reading Mission: Carter, Margaret and are wondering if this fic will also be a Steve/Bucky or Steve/Bucky/Peggy fic, no, it won't be. Part of the reason I started writing Mission was because I can never decide if I see Steve and Bucky as a romantic or familial relationship, so I'm exploring both angles. When Bucky does finally pop up in this series, it will be as Steve's brother.**

* * *

><p>Loki had a captive audience by the time they arrived – quite literally. He appeared to have interrupted some kind of formal gathering and the crowd had fled to the streets in their finery, only to be fenced in by what appeared to be holograms of the so-called demi-god, bedecked in battle armour and some kind of helmet that Peggy was certain had to be compensating for something.<p>

"Why are they kneeling?" Natasha murmured, but her question was answered almost immediately by the man himself, his voice cutting across the silent crowd, soft and hypnotic.

"The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power … for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end … you will always kneel."

Steve's jaw clenched and Peggy narrowed her eyes. "You want first crack at him?"

"If you wouldn't mind." Steve said, the anger in his voice belying the courtesy of the phrase.

"Get ready." Natasha said, pressing the button to open the rear hatch.

"Hang on." The pilot said, catching their attention. "What's that guy doing?"

Peggy joined Steve at the hatch to see that one elderly gentleman had risen to his feet, towering above his companions, looking Loki directly in the eye. "Not to men like you."

Loki smiled coldly. "There are no men like me."

"There are always men like you." The man said simply, and Peggy's stomach turned over at the implications.

"Look to your elder, people." Loki said loudly, pointing his sceptre in the man's direction. "Let him be an example."

As the tip of the sceptre began to glow, Steve leapt from the plane, landing in front of the man and deflecting the blast back with his shield. "You know," he said conversationally, as he straightened up, "the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above all the rest … we ended up disagreeing."

Loki struggled to his feet. "The soldier." He spat. "Man out of time."

Captain America smiled coldly, all traces of Steve vanishing beneath the cowl. "I'm not the one that's out of time."

The pilot took the opportunity to swing the quinjet round so it was facing him, and Natasha turned on the PA, releasing one of the guns. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down!"

Loki seemed to consider this for a second, before sending a blast at the quinjet. The pilot skilfully avoided it, but Steve took the opportunity to hurl the shield at Loki, knocking him back.

The crowd scattered as the fight began and Peggy glanced back at Natasha. "Shot?"

"They're all over the place." Natasha said. "We'll hit Captain Rogers too."

Before Peggy could jump from the plane, the PA began to play AC/DC_. "Agent Romanoff," _Tony's voice said, _"you miss me?"_

Natasha sighed, but Peggy could see a smile lurking around the corner of her mouth as Iron Man soared around one of the buildings, blasted Loki back into the steps of the building and landed heavily in front of him.

"Make a move, reindeer games."

Peggy held her breath as Steve approached them, setting the shield back on his arm. Slowly, Loki raised his hands, the armour and staff vanishing.

Tony lowered his hands, various weapons retreating back into his armour. "Good move."

"Okay, take us down." Peggy said, stepping back from the hatch as the quinjet landed.

The two men escorted Loki on to the quinjet and secured him, before Tony turned to Peggy, removing the helmet and leaning forward to kiss her cheek in greeting. "Lady Liberty, good to see you. How was your trip?"

"Eventful and successful." Peggy answered, inwardly laughing at his definition of a mission. "Do you two know each other?"

"Only by reputation." Steve answered, and there was a note of something cold in his voice, something that made Peggy ever so slightly uneasy.

"Well," she said, deciding not to mention it, "this should be interesting then. Tony, you remember Agent Romanoff."

"How could I forget?" Tony asked, but his voice had lost the trace of bitterness it had held previously. "You never answered, _did _you miss me?"

"Like a cramp." Natasha answered, with a quirk of her lips that told Peggy she, too, was not as disdainful as she pretended. "Pepper, on the other hand …"

"I don't blame you." Peggy said with a smile. "_Everyone_ loves Pepper. Now let's get out of here."

Tony pouted a little, but could hardly dispute her statement, and the quinjet took off quickly, before local authorities could get involved.

Peggy didn't envy the agents who would have to smooth _that_ over.

The trip back was largely silent.

Loki said nothing, not even when questioned about the location of the Tesseract, and it was clear that Tony and Steve (who had also removed his helmet and cowl) were not in the mood for conversation.

"I don't like it." Steve murmured, after a while.

"What?" Tony asked quietly. "Rock of Ages giving up so easily?"

"I don't remember it being that easy." Steve said with a frown. "This guy packs a wallop."

Tony snorted. "Still, you were pretty spry, for an older fellow. What's your thing, Pilates?"

Peggy gave a little cough in warning, but said nothing.

"What?" Steve asked, looking lost.

"It's like calisthenics." Tony elaborated. "You might have missed a couple of things while you were, you know, doing time as a Capsicle."

"Tony …" Peggy said warningly, getting to her feet. She caught his eye, but didn't smile. "Steve's right. This_ does_ feel too easy."

Steve turned to her. "Fury didn't tell us he was calling him in, right?"

"There's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you." Tony said with a humourless smile.

Peggy sighed. "He's a spy, Tony, get over it. No, Steve, he didn't, but I knew he would. Sorry I didn't warn you; I didn't think it was necessary."

Thunder rumbled outside, the quinjet, a great streak of lightning flashing across the clouds in front of them as the sky darkened.

"Where's this coming from?" Natasha asked.

Loki shrank back against the walls of the aircraft, causing Steve to frown.

"What's the matter?" He asked. "Scared of a little lightning?"

Loki gave him a tight smile. "I'm not overly fond of what follows."

Something heavy landed on top of them, making the whole aircraft shake. Tony pressed the button to open the rear hatch, refastening his helmet.

"What are you doing?" Steve demanded, following suit.

Before Tony could answer, a man landed on the ramp, his blond hair blowing in the wind. He was wearing silver armour with a red cape and one hand clutched the handle of a large hammer.

Peggy lowered the weapon she had drawn. She knew who this man was, and was almost certain that her bullets would do nothing to stop him.

Tony had no such restraint and raised a hand to fire, but the hammer flew into his chest, knocking him back into Steve and pinning them both to the floor.

Thor grabbed Loki, breaking the restraints easily, and the hammer returned to his hand. He swung it and leapt from the aircraft, taking his brother with him.

"And now there's that guy." Tony said, struggling to his feet.

"Thor." Peggy said. "I'm almost certain."

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha asked, raising her voice to be heard above the wind.

Steve's eyes widened behind the mask. "That guy's a friendly?"

"Doesn't matter." Tony said. "If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost."

"We need a plan of attack!" Steve protested.

"I have a plan." Tony said. "Attack."

Peggy sighed as he took off after the two Asgardians. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"I'd sit this one out, Cap." Natasha advised.

"I don't see how I can." Steve said, fastening on a parachute.

"These guys come from legends." Natasha warned. "They're practically gods."

"There's only one God, ma'am." Steve said. "And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."

"You going after them?" Natasha asked, once Steve had jumped.

"No." Peggy said with another sigh. "Bring the jet around and get ready to pick them up. You or I could probably explain to Thor about the Tesseract and get him to help us. If the boys want a punch-up first, who am I to argue?"

"Men." Natasha muttered, shaking her head. "Why must they complicate things that are really quite simple?"

Her male co-pilot – rather wisely – said nothing.

* * *

><p>By the time the 'punch-up', as Peggy had called it, was over, half a forest had been destroyed, but Loki, despite being left to his own devices in the meantime, was still sitting quietly when the quinjet landed.<p>

"You're up to something." Peggy said, when she alighted. She ignored his lack of response, letting Natasha secure him again, and jumped down to where the three men were standing in the newly-made clearing staring at each other.

"Are we done here?" Steve asked as she approached.

"You'd better be." Peggy said crisply. "We don't have time for this." She turned to the Asgardian. "Thor, correct? Loki's brother?"

"That is correct."

Peggy extended a hand. "Lady Liberty. Agent Coulson told me a lot about you."

Thor clasped her hand with a smile. "I regret that the Son of Coul did not offer me such tales, but I am flattered that he thought highly enough to do so."

Peggy couldn't help smiling back. "Well, things were a little frantic back then I hear. I realise that Loki is Asgardian and, as such, there is a definite jurisdiction issue, but we need to know where the Tesseract is, so I would very much appreciate it if we could work together for the time being."

Thor nodded. "Of course. I apologise for my actions. The last time I saw my brother, I believed he was killed. I may have … overreacted a little."

"Completely understandable." Peggy said, before turning to the other two men. "Tact, Tony, try to remember it. And, Steve, do I have to give you the diplomacy talk again?"

Tony nodded, avoiding her gaze. Steve reddened slightly, muttered a 'no ma'am' and strapped his shield back on.

Peggy gave them all – including Thor – one last stern look (she may have been giving him the respect she would automatically give a visiting dignitary, but that didn't mean she was going to let him get away with it) before leading them back to the quinjet.

* * *

><p><em>"It burns you to have come so close."<em>

Peggy shifted in her seat, her eyes flickering from the video to Steve, whose eyes were fixed on Loki's face, an unreadable expression on his face.

_"To have the Tesseract, to have power – unlimited power, and for what?"_

Fury had contained Loki in the cell they had prepared in case the Hulk made an appearance on board, something she knew Dr Banner was all too aware of. The man in question had abandoned his examination of Loki's sceptre to join them on the bridge (aside from Tony, who was changing out of the armour), and they were watching Loki in his prison cell as he taunted Fury.

His gaze turned to the camera, looking directly at them with a smirk.

_"A warm light for all mankind to share? And then to be reminded of what real power is."_

Hill cut the footage and Banner pulled his glasses off, wiping them on his shirt. "He really grows on you, doesn't he?"

Peggy smiled slightly, appreciating his attempt at lightening the situation.

"Loki's gonna drag this out." Steve said, finally dragging himself from his thoughts. "So, Thor, what's his play?"

Thor sighed heavily. "He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard, nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth. In exchange, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army." Steve repeated blankly. "From outer space." His gaze turned to Peggy, who was still in uniform, but, like Steve, had shed the helmet – most of the people in the room were level seven and, while they weren't technically cleared, she didn't really have time to worry about it.

Most of them weren't paying any attention anyway.

"Don't look at me." She said. "I'm still reeling from the original 'we are not alone' bombshell, and I wasn't even there for it."

"So he's building another portal." Banner concluded. "That's what he needs Eric Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor asked sharply.

"He's an astrophysicist." Banner explained.

"He's a friend." Thor said, sounding distressed, and Peggy remembered that Selvig had been present in New Mexico for the original Thor-Loki-Asgard debacle, probably where SHIELD had picked him up in the first place.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell." Natasha said heavily. "Along with one of ours."

"I still wanna know why Loki let us take him." Steve said.

Peggy nodded in agreement. "He's hardly going to lead an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." Banner said. "That guy's brain is a bag of cats; you can smell crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak." Thor warned. "Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha said flatly.

"He's adopted." Thor added, although whether his addition was to explain the murders or because he had expected a higher number, he didn't elaborated.

"What do you suggest then, Doctor?" Peggy asked, focussing on the man's initial suggestion.

"I think it's about the mechanics." Banner answered. "He targeted Stuttgart to steal iridium – what does he need the iridium for?"

"It's a stabilising agent." Tony answered, entering the bridge. "I'm just saying," he added to Phil, "pick a weekend; I'll fly you to Portland. Keep love alive. It means," he continued, now addressing the group at large, "the portal won't collapse in on itself like it did at SHIELD. No hard feelings, Point Break; you've got a mean swing." He patted Thor on the shoulder as he passed, moving to stand at Fury's command station. "Also means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants. Raise the mizenmast. Jib the topsails."

The entire room paused to look at him and Peggy heaved a long-suffering sigh.

"That man is playing _Galaga_!" Tony announced. "Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did."

Peggy hid a smile, seeing Steve look around completely lost. "Computer game." She murmured, just loudly enough for him to hear. "Not something he should be playing while working."

Tony frowned at the computers, covering one eye with his hand. "How does Fury see all of these?"

"He turns." Hill answered.

"Sounds exhausting." Tony muttered, tapping various icons. "The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill asked.

"Last night." Tony answered, turning his back on the computers. "The packet? Selvig's notes? The extraction theory papers? Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"I read through it on the flight back." Peggy said with a smile. "Didn't understand a word of it."

"You were reading through jet lag." Tony said, giving her a charming smile in return. "I'm sure you'd have got it under normal circumstances."

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve interrupted.

Banner nodded. "He'd have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier."

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilise the quantum tunnelling effect." Tony said.

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."

Tony beamed. "Finally, someone who speaks English!"

"Is that what just happened?" Steve muttered.

Tony shook Banner's hand with a smile. "It's good to meet you, Dr Banner. Your work on antielectron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster."

Peggy rolled her eyes. "We can't take you anywhere."

"Dr Banner is only here to track the Cube." Fury said, striding into the meeting area with a whirl of trench-coat. "I was hoping you might join him."

"I'd start with that stick of his." Steve suggested. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

Peggy shuddered. She hadn't made the connection, but of course Steve – whose last battle with HYDRA was a mere month ago as far as he was concerned – would have done. "That's not unlikely to be honest. They got their hands on the Tesseract somehow. I wonder if they didn't know something we didn't."

"Well, I don't know about that." Fury said. "But it is powered by the Cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

Thor frowned. "Monkeys? I do not …"

"I do!" Steve burst out, his face lighting up. "I understood that reference." He added, a little bashfully.

Tony rolled his eyes, but – perhaps reading the look on Peggy's face – said nothing, turning back to Banner. "Shall we play, Doctor?"


	8. Chapter 8

While they began the examination of Loki's sceptre, Peggy took the opportunity to change back into the SHIELD body suit.

"Aliens?" Steve asked, when she stepped out of her office.

"Aliens." Peggy confirmed, slipping her gun into her holster. "Don't ask me. I've given up trying to get my head around it. Ask me another."

"Alright." Steve said. "Original director?"

Peggy smiled, falling into step behind him. "SHIELD was founded to get rid of what was left of HYDRA and, yes, I was the director for about ten years, before I 'died'. Everyone above level eight security clearance knows who I am, so yes, there does tend to be a certain amount of push and pull. Officially, I have no say in what goes on, but I worked with Nick when he was a newbie agent, so there's that."

Tony's voice floated out of the lab as they approached it. "Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension. No surprises."

"Ow!" Banner yelped, as Tony prodded him in the side with a statically-charged instrument.

"Tony!" Peggy sighed.

"Nothing?" Tony asked, ignoring her.

"Are you nuts?" Steve demanded.

"Jury's out." Tony said with a shrug, turning back to Banner. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked.

"Funny things are." Tony said.

"Threatening the safety of everyone aboard this ship isn't funny." Steve said sternly. "No offence, Doc."

Banner waved him off. "It's alright, I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

Tony smirked. "You're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr Stark."

Tony retrieved a bag of blueberries from his briefcase. "Do you think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something." Steve said.

"Fury's always hiding something." Peggy said, taking a handful of blueberries when Tony offered her the bag. "He's a spy. He's _the _spy. His secrets have secrets."

"It's bugging him too." Tony added, gesturing to Banner. "Isn't it?"

Banner looked up from the sceptre, a mildly panicked look on his face. "I … I just want to finish my work here and …"

"Doctor?" Steve prompted.

Banner sighed. "A warm light for all mankind to share. Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube."

"I heard it."

"Well, I think that was meant for you." Banner said to Tony, who offered him the bag. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it's been all over the news."

"Stark Tower?" Steve asked. "That big ugly," he faltered as Tony gave him a dirty look, "building in New York."

"It's powered by an arc reactor," Banner explained, "a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?"

Tony shrugged. "It's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now." He added, for Steve's benefit. "That's what he's getting at."

"So why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Banner asked. "And what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"Wait." Peggy interrupted. "They didn't bring you in?"

Tony frowned. "No. Were they going to?"

"Fury implied he was going to." Peggy said slowly. "I suggested it before I left for Tibet. Now that I think about it, I don't think he actually said he was going to, but would have made sense. I can't answer the energy question though. We pulled out of the project in 1959, because the World Security Council denied us funding because we're 'a defence organisation not an energy provider', and I still don't know why that's changed."

"Yeah, I should probably look into that," Tony agreed, "once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files."

Peggy pinched the bridge of her nose tiredly. "I can't take you anywhere." She repeated, with no less affection in her voice.

Steve frowned. "I'm sorry, did you say …?"

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge." Tony said. "In a couple of hours, I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has tried to hide." He offered Steve the bag. "Blueberry?"

Steve ignored him. "And yet you're confused as to why they didn't want you around."

Tony rolled his eyes. "An intelligence organisation that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome."

Steve sighed. "I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them."

Peggy raised an eyebrow. "You mean like 'let us handle this, Rogers, don't go to Austria'? Your track record of following orders isn't amazing, Steve, not when you think there's something wrong. But," she added, when he turned to her with an almost betrayed expression on his face, "he is right. Finding the Cube is your priority, Tony." Tucking a hand into the crook of Steve's elbow, she gently but firmly steered him out of the lab.

"Doesn't that bother you?" Steve whispered.

"A little." Peggy admitted. "But there's nothing in those files that I don't know about – at least there shouldn't be – and if there is, I want to know about it."

Steve's frown deepened. "Be honest – does he have a point?"

Peggy sighed. "Yes. Yes he does."

"And if they _were_ up to something else in New Mexico," Steve said, "would it have been buried?"

"Maybe." Peggy said slowly, thinking about it. "Unless they managed to get whatever it was out with the evacuation, in which case it would be in storage."

"Where?" Steve pressed.

"Here." Peggy said, already leading him towards the secure storage. "On the carrier."

"What if we find something?" Steve asked.

Peggy grimaced. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

* * *

><p>Thor didn't think there was anything that could convince Loki to give up his plan or the location of the Tesseract, but Fury was right about one thing – he <em>was<em> pleased that he'd been caught.

So pain was not the answer.

Luckily, Natasha didn't need pain, she never had (although that wasn't to say she didn't resort to it from time to time, or, indeed, enjoy resorting to it from time to time).

Entering the detention level silently, she made her way to the glass cell containing the so-called god of mischief, her feet as light as a cat's, so light that she was standing in front of him when Loki realised she was there.

He did not, however, act surprised. "There's not many who can sneak up on me."

"But you figured I'd come." Natasha concluded.

"After." Loki said with a smile. "After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate."

If he knew even half of what she was capable of, he would not be so blasé, but she did not let herself relax. "I want to know what you've done to Agent Barton."

It was a risky play. If she was to trick him into revealing all, she needed another reason to be there, and Clint was a perfect excuse, but it was too close to the truth for her to be entirely comfortable with it and it involved her exposing a great deal more of herself than she felt comfortable with.

"I'd say I've expanded his mind." Loki answered.

"And once you've won," Natasha said slowly, "once you're king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?"

Loki's smile grew. "Oh … Is this love, Agent Romanoff?"

"Love is for children." Natasha said coldly, clinically, and she could almost convince herself that she still believed that. "I owe him a debt."

"Tell me." Loki requested, dropping to sit on the ground.

Natasha hesitated, before folding herself into the wooden chair that sat in front of the cage. "Before I worked to SHIELD, I … Well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill-set. I didn't care who I used it for … or on. I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me." She hesitated, remembering the fight in Russia, how he had overpowered her, reached for his bow, aimed and then … lowered the arrow, a curious expression crossing his face. "He made a different call."

"And what will you do if I vow to spare him?" Loki asked curiously.

"Not let you out." Natasha said immediately.

Loki laughed. "No, but I like this. Your world in the balance and you bargain for one man."

"Regimes fall every day." Natasha said with a shrug. "I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian. Or I was."

"And what are you now?"

Natasha stood, the beginnings of unease starting to trickle through her veins. "It's really not that complicated. I got red in my ledger. I want to wipe it out."

"Can you?" Loki asked quietly. "Can you wipe out that much red? Dreykov's daughter?"

The blood froze in Natasha's veins, the name darting into the depths of her memory and dragging forth the face of the little girl whose only crime was to be in her father's arms when the bullet ripped through his body, killing them both instantly.

"Sao Paulo? The hospital fire?" Loki got to his feet, his eyes fixed on her. "Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping, it's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything. This is a child at prayer – pathetic! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors, but they are part of you. And they will never go away."

* * *

><p>Getting in to the storage unit was easy. Peggy's access card let her in pretty much everywhere and avoiding the agents guarding the equipment was so simple that Peggy made a mental note to find out who they were and have them retrain.<p>

Actually finding something was a bit more difficult, especially since they didn't know what they were looking for.

"Maybe you're right." Peggy said after a while, closing another storage box. "Maybe Tony is being paranoid and cynical."

"Or maybe not." Steve said. "What's Phase Two?"

Peggy ducked around the shelving unit to find him standing over a series of metal crates, all labelled with that very phrase. "I have no idea, but they're labelled as P.E.G.A.S.U.S as well so they must have come from New Mexico."

With one last glance at her, Steve popped the lid, revealing … "Is that a HYDRA weapon?"

"No." Peggy asked softly, lifting it out to examine it. "But it's powered … I think it's powered by the Tesseract." She didn't look up, couldn't look up to see Steve's face, nausea bubbling in her stomach. "I'm sorry, Steve."

"It's not your fault." Steve said, his voice tight with anger. "You're not the one who should be apologising."

Peggy's comm unit crackled in her ear. _"Loki means to unleash the Hulk." _Natasha's voice said. _"Keep Banner in the lab; I'm on my way. Send Thor as well."_

"Come on." Peggy said, finally meeting Steve's gaze. "We'd best join the party."

* * *

><p>"What are you doing, Mr Stark?"<p>

Tony smiled icily at Director Fury. "Kinda been wondering the same thing about you."

"You are supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Fury said sternly.

"We are." Banner said, pointing to his computer. "The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

"Yeah, you'll get your Cube back." Tony said, returning his attention to the files popping up on his computer screen. "No muss, no fuss. What is Phase Two?"

"Funny you should ask that, Tony." Peggy said from the doorway. "Apparently, Phase Two is SHIELD using the Cube to make weapons."

Fury sighed. "We gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're making …"

"I'm sorry, Nick." Tony interrupted, swinging the screen around so they could see the blueprints. "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong, Director." Steve said in a low voice, his arms crossed over his chest. "The world hasn't changed a bit."

"What the hell is going on?" Peggy demanded. "I realise that a lot of the information you give me is out of courtesy not necessity, but you didn't think _this_ was something I should know?"

"I knew you wouldn't agree …" Fury began.

"You're damn right I don't agree!" Peggy snapped. "I knew there was something off about this whole thing!"

"Did you know about this?" Banner asked, alerting them all to Natasha and Thor's arrival.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha asked in response.

"I was in Calcutta." Banner said. "I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you." Natasha said softly.

"And you've been doing what, exactly?" Banner asked.

Natasha sighed. "You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Banner said. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

Fury sighed. "Because of him." He said, pointing at Thor.

"Me?"

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that levelled a small town." Fury said. "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly – hilariously – outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor protested.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury said. "And you're not the only threat. The world is filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled."

"For heaven's sake!" Peggy interrupted. "First of all, Dr Banner, please let me apologise on behalf of SHIELD for this whole situation, I for one did _not_ have any idea about what was going on here."

Banner managed to give her a small smile. "Thank you, Agent Carter."

"Secondly," Peggy said, rounding on Natasha, "you wouldn't agree with this anymore than I do, there's no way you knew about it."

"I didn't." Natasha admitted quietly.

"I don't know what just happened with Loki." Peggy said, lowering her voice a little. "But you're shutting down again. Try to hang on. Thirdly," she added, turning on Fury, "I know we monitor potential threats, but that should not include a list of human beings, for heaven's sake. Surely even you can see that this was a really, _really _bad idea. If the Tesseract had been left alone, the way I said it should have been, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies." Thor agreed. "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"You forced our hand." Fury insisted. "We had to come up with something."

"A nuclear deterrent." Tony concluded. "Because that always calms everything right down."

Fury rolled his eye. "Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?"

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep …" Steve began.

"Steve …" Peggy began.

"Hold on." Tony said before she could finish. "How is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve asked sarcastically.

Peggy pinched the bridge of her nose, letting the argument wash over her. She was just about to cut in again, when Thor managed to make himself head over the bickering.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos."

"That's is MO, isn't it?" Banner asked, and, yes, Thor had been heard, but it was these words that made them fall silent. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."

"You need to step away." Fury said sternly.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony said.

"You know damn well why. Back off!" Steve snapped.

Tony narrowed his eyes. "Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armour." Steve said. "Take that off, what are you?"

"Steve …" Peggy said again.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Tony listed breezily.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you." Steve said. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire." Tony said.

Steve smiled humourlessly. "Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you'd better stop pretending to be a hero."

Tony snorted. "A hero? Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds."

"Alright, that's enough!" Peggy snapped.

Tony immediately turned on her. "He …"

"I don't give a crap who started it, I'm finishing it!" Peggy said briskly. "Steve, I don't know where you got your information, but it is apparently incredibly incomplete, not to mention inaccurate. Tony …"

"What?" Tony asked with a sigh.

Peggy narrowed her eyes, setting her hands on her hips. "Do not take that tone with me, Anthony Edward. I know full well I raised you better than this so bloody well act like it!" She ignored Steve's choked query, keeping her eyes locked with Tony's until his gaze dropped.

"Sorry." He murmured.

"Thank you." Peggy said, turning to take the entire room into her gaze. "Now I realise that many of us are feeling lied to and betrayed, thank you Director, but the fact of the matter is that the Tesseract _is_ still missing and that_ is_ a threat to global security, and whatever is going to happen with it when we get it back, I think we can all agree that we want it out of Loki's hands." Her gaze settled on Banner, who was still taking deep, calming breaths. "Dr Banner?"

For a few seconds, the entire room was silent, tense, waiting to see if the deceptively mild-mannered doctor could control the being that lived within him.

The tension was broken, however, not by the Hulk, but by an alert on the computer.

"Sorry, kids." Banner muttered. "Guess you don't get to see my party trick after all."

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.

"I can get there fastest." Tony said.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard." Thor protested. "No human is a match for it."

"You're not going alone." Steve said, catching Tony's arm.

"You gonna stop me?" Tony asked.

"Put on the suit, let's find out."

"Boys!" Peggy said wearily. "For heaven's sake, act your ages, both of you." She crossed the floor to take a look at the map Banner had pulled up, her heart stopping when she realised what she was seeing. "Doctor … does that mean what I think it means?"

"I'm afraid …" Banner began, but her question was answered with no uncertainty by an explosion that shook the entire room.

As Fury and Thor were thrown back through the glass wall, the ground beneath Peggy's feet seemed to crumble. She plummeted downwards, grabbing the leg of one of the desks – thankfully bolted to part of the floor still intact – abruptly stopping her fall, the jagged metal around the hole tearing through her uniform and into her arm.

"Put on the suit." Steve repeated urgently, and she heard him scramble across the floor towards her.

With her free hand, she reached up blindly, allowing him to pull her back up to the lab.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"I'll be fine." Peggy said, examining the wound on her arm. It still looked nasty, but the internal tears were beginning to heal over. "There should be a field kit in one of those cabinets."

_"Hill!"_

_"External detonation. Number three engine is down."_

"Shit." Peggy muttered.

"Is that bad?" Steve asked, returning with a bandage.

"Not at the moment." Peggy said, holding out her arm so he could bandage the wound. "But if we lose another engine, we won't be able to stay in the air."

_"Someone needs to get outside and patch that engine."_

_"Stark, do you copy?"_

_"I'm on it."_

"You'd better get out there." Peggy said. "Engine Three."

"What about you?" Steve asked.

"Natasha and Banner dropped to the boiler room." Peggy answered. "I need to go and do damage control."

They parted ways outside the lab and Peggy sprinted towards the lower levels, her enhanced hearing picking up the distant roar of an enraged Hulk. As she rounded a corner, she instantly dived to one side, avoiding the bullets that flew towards her, drawing her weapon.

_"We've got a perimeter breach. Hostiles are in SHIELD gear, call-out to every junction."_

"Yeah, thanks for the warning." Peggy muttered, dropping the two insurgents with one bullet.

They kept coming, and Peggy kept her gun on hand as a last resort, saving what little ammo she had on her.

_Note to self: keep back up ammo in uniform at all times, even when you're on base._

As she fought, little snippets of information passed through her comm link. Phil was securing the detention centre. Fury and Maria were holding the bridge. Steve and Tony were dislodging the debris from the engine. Thor took over helping Natasha and a quinjet managed to lure the Hulk off the carrier altogether (although she doubted that was their plan).

Suddenly, there was another explosion, and Peggy groaned, taking out her frustration by kicking one of the insurgents in the head. "Stop blowing holes in my ship!"

She stumbled, the carrier listing dangerously to one side. The man she was dealing with took a swing at her, she grabbed his arm, twisted and flipped, smacking his head against the wall.

_"It's Barton! He took out our systems. He's heading for the detention level – does anybody copy?"_

_"This is Agent Romanoff. I copy."_

Peggy hesitated for a split-second. Natasha's voice was audibly shaken, but she was a master at fighting through her issues, so Peggy turned on her heel and sprinted towards engine three, stumbling a little every time the carrier jolted.

It began to even out just as she reached it, but one of the insurgents was firing a machine gun at what appeared to be an empty platform so she knocked him out with the butt of her gun, before climbing up to see what his target had been.

One of the thick wire cables had come loose and was hanging from the edge. Peering over, her heart stopped – Steve was at the other end, clinging to it, the only thing keeping him from plummeting ten thousand feet to the ocean below.

_Not again. I am not losing him again._

"Red lever!" He called up, as she moved to help him. "Stark's still in the engine!"

Her heart did another strange gymnastics routine and she scrambled to pull the lever, before dropping to her stomach to avoid a new hail of bullets, reaching down to grab Steve's spare hand.

Iron Man flew overhead and straight into the gunman, and Peggy breathed a sigh of relief, helping Steve pull himself up.

They just about fell back into the carrier and Peggy slammed the exterior door shut, collapsing against the wall. "Well done, gentlemen."

"Piece of cake." Tony said, lifting the face plate. "Armour's going to need some repairs though."

Peggy laughed weakly. "At least we're still in the air."

_"Agent Coulson is down."_

Peggy froze, her smile vanishing, holding up a hand to forestall any other remarks, her other hand automatically going to her comm link to listen in.

_"A medical team is on their way to your location."_

_"They're here. They called it."_

"Peggy …" Steve began.

Peggy shook her head jerkily, pushing away from the wall. "I need to change. Tony, get out of that armour and get a medic to check you over."

She left with as much dignity as she could muster, counting the steps in her head to keep from thinking about her colleague – her best friend, since Howard's death …

They understood, or at the very least, Tony did and Steve actually listened to him, because neither tried to follow her.

Still, she didn't break into a run until she was out of sight, slamming her office door behind her and sinking to the ground before succumbing to her tears.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: This is the chapter I really need feedback on, because the bulk of the action's coming and I CAN'T WRITE FIGHT SCENES so this one's kind of my trial run, so to speak. Also, I'm not naming any of these chapters, but if I was, this one would be 'In which Peggy is team mother'.<strong>


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